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ON THE COAST OF FRANCE 




\'ice-Admiral Henry B. Wilson, U. S. X. 
Commander L'nited States Xa\'al Forces in Franc 



On the Coast of France 

The Story of the United States Naval 
Forces in French Waters 



BY 

JOSEPH HUSBAND 

Ensign, U. S. N. R. F. 



WITH "PREFACE " BY 

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT 

Assistant Secretary of the Navy 



ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS 




CHICAGO 

A. C. McCLURG & CO. 

1919 



^iU^ 



•nX^ 



Copyright 

A. C. McCLURG & CO. 

1919 



Published, May 1919 



-3 13\3 



W. f. MALL PdlNTINOCOMMNV, CMICASO 

CI.A515746 

,/ 



tETo 

Vice-Admiral H. B. Wilson, U. S. N. 

By whose fine professional ability a 
great work was splendidly accom- 
plished, and by whose rare personal- 
ity the bond between two sister repub- 
lics was the more firmly established 

— Joseph Husband 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I First Months of the War i 

II Building the Machine 24 

III In the Path of the Submarine .... 37 

IV The Converted Yachts 59 

V The Destroyers 83 

VI Other Activities 108 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 



Vice-Admiral Henry B. Wilson, U. S. N. . 

Frontispiece 

U. S. S. Noma ^ 

U. S. S. Christahel ^ 

U. S. S. Rambler 7 

U. S. S. Wanderer 7 

Brest. The old chateau and a bit of the harbor 14 

The landing at Brest ^5 

The Leviathan ^^ 

Troop ship at Brest 22^ 

A French dirigible ^3 

German sea mines ^3 

A sea plane makes a bad dive ?>^ 

The destroyer Monaghan 3° 

The hammer-head bow of a destroyer . • • 3^ 

Depth charges on the stern of a destroyer . 31 

Destroyers waiting for an incoming convoy . 38 
Troop ship escorted by a destroyer and two sea 

planes 3° 

Observation balloon on a destroyer ... 39 

The balloon going up 39 

The British mystery ship Diinraven . . . 46 

The Dunraven sinking 4" 

The Philomel (British) after being torpedoed 47 

The last of the Philomel 47 



Illustrations 



PAGE 

The Mount Vernon showing hole torn in her 

side by a torpedo 54 

The bow of the von Steuben after collision with 

the Agamemnon 55 

"Y" gun 62 

Dropping a depth charge 63 

The detonation of a depth charge .... 63 
Picking up a lifeboat in the Bay of Biscay . . 76 
Picking up a lifeboat from a torpedoed ship . 77 
The Westward Ho being towed into Brest . 77 
Rough weather on the destroyer Benham . . 84 
Torpedo tubes on destroyer Benham ... 85 
Four-inch gun crew on destroyer Benham . . 85 
Where the destroyer Jarvis rammed the de- 
stroyer Benham 94 

The bow of the Jarvis after her collision with 

the Benham 94 

The side of the Benham after being rammed 95 
Another view of the Jarvis after collision with 

the Benham 95 

The explosion of the Florence H 102 

Thornycroft depth-charge thrower .... 103 
Destroyers alongside the Bridgeport at Brest . no 
Another view of the destroyers showing camou- 
flage no 

Looking forward on a "flush deck" destroyer in 
Looking aft on a "flush deck" destroyer . .111 

The flag that flew 120 

Group of French and American naval oflficers . 121 



INTRODUCTION 

NEVER in the history of the world has sea 
power played so vital a part in the win- 
ning of a war; and never, in proportion to the 
magnitude of the forces and operations involved, 
has the Navy played a part in which its prover- 
bial silence has been as marked as in the activities 
which terminated on November ii, 1918, with 
the armistice between the Allied and the Central 
Powers. 

The war in its naval aspects, has been a war 
of negative action; a series of checkmates, by 
which the Allied navies secured the seas from 
the interference of the grand fleets and raiding 
squadrons of the enemy. But in this war the 
submarine, a new weapon of offensive warfare, 
imposed new conditions. Relatively secure in 
its operations from the larger vessels of the 



xii Introduction 



Allied navies, which themselves were in many 
instances its ready prey, the submarine directed 
its activities against the troop and store ships by 
which alone the men and means to prosecute the 
war were made possible. 

To meet the preying warfare of the submarine, 
the smaller and faster vessels of our Navy were 
required in European waters, to assure the safe 
and uninterrupted passage of our " bridge of 
ships." It is not the purpose of this narrative to 
deal with the operations of the United States 
Naval Forces in English waters or in the Med- 
iterranean. In the north, the concerted action 
with the British Navy, and in the south the co- 
operation with the navies of France and Italy 
developed operations of which it is impossible 
at this early date to secure even casual data. 

Of the activities of the United States Naval 
Forces in France, it is possible, however, to ob- 
tain more definite information, due primarily to 
the fact that these operations were more sharply 
defined and more distinctly our own. To keep 
open the western coast of France was a task of 
the most vital importance, involving a large and 



Introduction xiii 



capable organization and the utmost secrecy of 
operation. 

Due to this necessity for secrecy, little has been 
known of the work of our Navy on the French 
coast. To the majority of the American people 
our men and stores have been transported with 
a miraculous freedom from disaster, but the 
means by which this security has been attained 
have been unknown. 

In no sense is this volume offered as a history 
of the United States Naval Forces in France, for 
a historic record of those splendid activities 
would require a study of the complete operations 
which is at the present time impossible. Rather, 
it is the present purpose to afiford, by a few side 
lights on these activities of sixteen months, a gen- 
eral view of the field and an impression of the 
nature of the work involved. By these, our most 
recent operations in the world's most historic 
waters, the forces of the Navy not only secured 
the desired safe passage of our troop and store 
ships but by their cooperation with the French 
Naval Forces and their association with the 
people oi the French nation, on land as on the 



xiv Introduction 



sea, established a sentiment of mutual affection 
and esteem more permanent than can be obtained 
by treaties or the written word. 

More than the United States can ever realize, 
does it owe to those who directed our naval 
operations in French waters, a gratitude for past 
performance and for future promise. 

Brest, France, December 2, lQl8. 



PREFACE 

By Franklin D. Roosevelt 
Assistant Secretary of the Navy 

THE Navy was known during the war as 
the " Silent Service." Little appeared in 
official dispatches or in the public press regard- 
ing the operations of the United States Naval 
Forces either in Europe or on our own coast. 
In fact, in only a handful of instances, where a 
transport was torpedoed or where an enemy sub- 
marine was definitely accounted for, was any 
mention made of our naval work. Generally 
speaking, the people at home knew only that 
their Navy was successfully manning the trans- 
ports and escorting the troops, munitions, and 
supplies in safety to the shores of France. 

How very much more these operations in- 
volved is only now coming out. On our entrance 
into the Great War in the spring of 1917, steps 
were immediately taken by the Navy Depart- 



xvi Preface 

merit to build up an organization to be based on 
the French coast, primarily for the purpose of 
keeping the famous " Neck of the Bottle " as free 
as possible from German submarines. The dis- 
tance from Bordeaux to Brest is a comparatively 
small one, and almost every ship entering the 
French ports from the United States had, of ne- 
cessity, to pass through a narrow strip of sea. 
This small area had proved 2: famous hunting- 
ground for enemy submarines, and it became 
our obvious task to send over every possible 
means of assistance to work with the French 
Navy. 

The story of what our officers and men did in 
those early days is the best illustration of the all- 
round efficiency of the Navy. A large propor- 
tion of the officers and men came from civil 
life, but were quickly and successfully indoctri- 
nated into their naval duties by the regular offi- 
cers of the service. The tools with which they 
had to work were, in large part, makeshift. 
Yachts were hurriedly converted to naval pur- 
poses; all kinds of equipment was taken over for 
possible use in France. From small beginnings 



Preface xvii 

the organization grew until by the summer of 
1918 the whole western coast of France was 
guarded by a string of surface vessels and air- 
craft. 

Not only was the "Neck of the Bottle" made 
safe for our troop and supply ships, but the op- 
erations were extended from the defensive type 
to the offensive, and the very existence of enemy 
submarines was rendered extremely unhealthy 
long before the armistice came. 

To the men who took part in this great work 
too much credit cannot be given. Extraordi- 
nary physical endurance was called for, and 
more than that, imagination and a genius to meet 
new conditions with untried weapons was essen- 
tial to success. 

During the summer of 1918 I had the pleas- 
ure of visiting these French bases and of seeing 
the work at first hand. No part of our naval 
activities deserves higher credit than the part 
they took. They have the satisfaction, at least, 
of knowing that the Navy and the country are 
proud of them. 

Washington, D. C, April 25, IQIQ. 



On the Coast of France 



CHAPTER I 

FIRST MONTHS OF THE WAR 

WITH the entry of the United States into 
the war with Germany and the Central 
Powers, arose the immediate necessity of naval 
participation and cooperation with the fleets of 
the Allied nations. Never in the world's history 
had been furnished an example so complete and 
so convincing of the vital necessity of adequate 
sea power to secure the desired victory over the 
common foe. For three years the great fleets of 
England had been holding in leash the German 
Navy, but despite the assurance which England's 
fleet had given for the protection of the seas 
from the German High Sea Fleet, other grave 
dangers were clearly existent. In the Channel, 
on the west coast of Ireland, along the French 



On the Coast of France 



coast and in the Mediterranean, the German and 
Austrian submarines were waging a successful 
warfare against the Allied shipping. To hold 
in port the powerful Navy of Germany, the 
Grand Fleet of England was chained to its 
guardianship of the Helgoland gates, and on a 
similar duty the French fleet watched the har- 
bors and naval' bases of Austria in the Mediter- 
ranean. 

The entry of the United States into the war, 
created new problems which it alone must solve; 
problems of transportation of troops and sup- 
plies to the practically unprotected ports of west- 
ern France. 

Tied hand and foot were the fleets of the Al- 
lies. Not only did it devolve upon us to deliver 
an army on French soil and the necessary stores 
required by these hundreds of thousands of fight- 
ing men; but it also became necessary for us in 
large measure, to protect the passage and arrival 
of the vessels required for troop and store trans- 
ports. 

From Calais the French coast slips in a south- 
westerly direction, embracing in its rugged coast 



First Months of the War 



line the ports of Boulogne, Le Havre and Cher- 
bourg, to the rocky point of Finistere where in a 
great sheltered harbor, at its western extremity, 
rests the city of Brest, greatest of all French sea- 
ports from the aspects of naval strategy. From 
Brest, the coast runs southeasterly to the Spanish 
line, including, from north to south, the harbors 
of Lorient, Quiberon Bay, Saint-Nazaire, La 
Rochelle, Rochefort, the Gironde River and 
Bordeaux, the Adour River and Bayonne and 
the little southern fishing port of Saint-Jean de 
Luz almost in the shadow of the Pyrenees. Of 
these ports, Brest, Lorient, Saint-Nazaire and 
the Gironde offered the best facilities for the re- 
ception of troops and stores; and it was here that 
the preliminary steps were taken to prepare for 
their arrival. But the great work of the Navy 
was apparently to be not on French soil or on the 
wide Atlantic, but particularly in the submarine 
danger zone which naturally centered at those 
points on the French coast where the greatest 
number of transatlantic lanes converged; in 
other words, in the Bay of Biscay at Brest, and in 
the Channel. 



On the Coast of France 



To understand more clearly the nature of the 
convoy work, it may be divided into two general 
classes : 

First, the escorting into and out of port 
through the danger zone of the transatlantic con- 
voys; and, second, the escorting of the coastal 
convoys from port to port. The mission of the 
United States Naval Forces in France may thus 
be crystallized into the following sentence: "To 
safeguard United States troop and store ships 
and to cooperate with the French naval authori- 
ties." 

Granted, therefore, the hypothesis that with 
a limited number of ports of arrival in France 
the enemy submarines would have only to watch 
the immediate approaches to these ports, the 
problem became simplified and the work re- 
solved itself into a system of convoys, both 
coastal and deep sea, so thorough in its char- 
acter, that the submarines would be forced from 
the entrances of the harbors and be compelled to 
wait for the convoys at a considerable distance 
off the coast and in the open sea where the chance 
of meeting was materially reduced and where 



First Months of the War 



the attendant dangers and hardships were 
greatly increased. 

On the entire western coast of France and in 
the Channel, German submarines were particu- 
larly active; it was but logical to calculate that 
this activity would increase as the volume of 
American shipping was augmented. To meet 
this submarine blockade and carry against it a 
successful warfare, was especially required a 
type of small and swift vessels capable of mount- 
ing guns of intermediate caliber and of being 
rapidly maneuvered and, at the same time, pos- 
sessing sufficient seaworthy qualities to with- 
stand the strains of continuous service in waters 
notoriously tempestuous. For this work the de- 
stroyer was unquestionably the ideal type, but 
as the few destroyers available had been sent to 
English waters, the yachts were taken over and 
converted as far as possible to meet the require- 
ments. Later, by the addition of a number of 
destroyers, it was planned to provide a force of 
sufficient strength and mobility to ofifset the sub- 
marine activities and assure the safety required 
to place our troops and stores on French soil. To 



On the Coast of France 



cooperate with the United States Naval Forces, 
the French Navy afforded a number of small 
destroyers and fast patrol boats, suitably armed 
and familiar with the waters in which the major 
operations would necessarily take place. In ad- 
dition, the French naval establishment possessed 
adequate and most excellent mine-sweeping fa- 
cilities and also a limited force of hydroplanes 
and dirigibles for cooperation with the patrol 
and escort vessels. 

It is appropriate to recall at the beginning 
of this narrative of our latest naval achievements 
that it was in these same historic French waters, 
that our Navy found its birth, and that in 
Quiberon Bay the Stars and Stripes, flying from 
the U. S. S. Ranger of John Paul Jones, received 
its first salute from a foreign nation when the 
guns of the fleet of the French Admiral le 
Motte, thundered a welcome to this new-born 
ensign of the new-born nation across the sea. 

On June 4, 1917, a small fleet of six yachts left 
the New York Navy Yard and steamed slowly 
down the stream. This force, a handful of con- 
verted pleasure vessels, bore the ofUcial designa- 



U. S. S. NOMA 




U. S. S. CHRISTABEL 
The smallest and oldest ship in foreign service. The white 
star on the slack means official credit for a snbmarme 



U. S. S. RAMBLER 




u. s. s. \vaxl)1':rer 



First Months of the War 



tion of the U. S. Patrol Squadrons Operating 
in European Waters and constituted the first 
American naval participation in the Great War, 
actually to be established in French waters. The 
yachts were: 

U. S. S. Kanawha U. S. S. Fedette 

U. S. S. Noma U. S. S. Christabel 

U. S. S. Harvard U. S. S. Sultana 

and also included in this force, but temporarily 
under the orders of Rear- Admiral Gleaves, were 
the U. S. S. Corsair and the U. S. S. Aphrodite. 
For over a month work had been pushed to the 
utmost to prepare the yachts for foreign service. 
Furnishings and decorations of peaceful days 
were removed and stored in Brooklyn ware- 
houses. White sides and glittering brightwork 
were hidden under coats of battle gray. Fore 
and aft, three-inch guns were mounted, and guns 
of smaller caliber were located on the upper 
decks. Cutlasses and rifles lined bulkheads of 
panelled oak or mahogany. Everywhere about 
the ships improvised quarters, in former smok- 
ing-rooms, libraries and sun-parlors, housed 



8 On the Coast of France 

crews expanded by war-time necessity to four or 
five times the original quota required to operate 
the yachts in time of peace. 

The six yachts anchored until the morning of 
June 9 ofif Tompkinsville, S. I., New York, and 
at 5 : 30 A.M. stood out to sea at a standard speed 
of ten knots, enroute to Bermuda. On the 
twelfth of June, the force arrived at St. George's 
Bay, coaled; on the sixteenth again got under 
way and shaped a course for the Azores. 

The yachts arrived at Brest, France, on the 
fourth of July, after a relatively uneventful 
voyage, where they found the Corsair and the 
Aphrodite, which had arrived ahead of them 
due to their greater size which enabled them to 
lay a direct transatlantic course. On July 14, 
1917, the squadron commander, Captain W. B. 
Fletcher, U. S. N., with his staff, secured quar- 
ters on shore and began the first actual active co- 
operation with the French Navy against the 
enemy submarines. It is of historical interest to 
note that a few hours before entering the harbor, 
the Noma sighted a periscope. A few hours 
later, the S. S. Orleans was torpedoed, probably 



First Months of the War 



by the same submarine which the Noma sighted, 
and her thirty-seven survivors of the crew and 
the thirteen members of the United States naval 
armed guard were brought into Brest by the 
Sultana. 

During the month of July, the yachts received 
a strenuous introduction to the patrol duty, 
which consisted of a constant patrol of defined 
areas of water, so continuous and so thorough 
that the submarine activities, hitherto in a large 
measure undisputed, were materially hampered 
and the safety of the convoys passing through 
these waters was proportionately increased. On 
the afternoon of the twenty-ninth of August, the 
U. S. S. Guinevere and the U. S. S. Carola IV, of 
the Second Squadron of converted yachts, ar- 
rived at Brest, and on the thirtieth. Commander 
F. N. Freeman, U. S. N., with the yachts U. S. S. 
Alcedo, U. S. S. Wanderer, U. S. S. Remlik, 
U. S. S. Corona, and U. S. S. Emeline came into 
the harbor, delayed by storms and with badly 
leaking decks. 

Due to the unusually fantastic scheme of 
camouflage which disguised the ships of the Sec- 



lo On the Coast of France 

ond Squadron, these yachts were commonly 
known as the " Easter Egg Fleet," every conceiv- 
able color having been incorporated in a riotous 
speckled pattern on their sides.^ 

On the fifteenth of August, the Noma reported 
the first actual engagement with any enemy sub- 
marine as follows: "At 2: 17 P.M. in position 
Lat. 47° 40' N. Long. 5° 05' W. sighted a sus- 
picious object bearing about 245° (per standard 
compass), distance about 6,000 yards. Object 
was made out to be a submarine on the surface 
heading about 320° psc. A discharge was being 
emitted by the submarine, very much like smoke 
and was very misleading. Submarine was evi- 
dently charging her batteries. At 2:20 P.M. 
went to " general quarters " and closed in on sub- 
marine. At 2:24 P.M. opened fire with port 
battery, distance about 4,000 yards. Fired ten 
shots. Submarine fired three shots at this ship, 

lU.S.S. CorWr — Lieut. Com. T. A. Kittinger, U.S.N. U.S.S. 
Aphrodite — Lieut. Com. R, P. Craft, U.S.N. U.S.S. Noma — 
Lieut. Com. L. R. Leahy, U.S.N. U.S.S. Kanawha — Lieut. Com. 
H. D. Cooke, U.S.N. U.S.S. Vedette — Ueui. Com. C. L. Hand, 
U.S.N. U.S.S. Christabel —Ueuttnmt H. B. Riebe, U.S.N. U.S.S. 
Harvard — Lieutenant A. G. Stirling, U.S.N. U.S.S. Sultana — 
Lieutenant E. G. Allen, U.S.N. Captain William B. Fletcher, 
U.S.N., squadron commander. 



First Months of the War ll 



one striking about 500 yards ahead of the ship 
and the other two shots well over and on the 
quarter. At 2:27 P.M. the submarine sub- 
merged. Proceeded to vicinity of submarine, 
but did not see her again. At 2:35 P.M. re- 
sumed our course." 

Although the foregoing was the first actual 
engagement, the Noma on August 8, in response 
to an S. O. S. call, joined the S. S. Dunraven, 
which was badly disabled by gunfire from a sub- 
marine. This ship had been shelled from astern 
by the submarine, one shell having exploded in 
the after magazine and disabled the steering 
gear. Soon after, the submarine approached 
closer to the Dunraven and fired a torpedo. The 
submarine was in this position when the Noma 
came up on the opposite side of the torpedoed 
vessel. Two depth charges were dropped by the 
Noma on the spot where the submarine sub- 
merged, but these being of the early type, failed 
to detonate. 

The next squadron of the patrol force, Captain 
T. P. Magruder, U. S. N., in command, reached 
Brest on the afternoon of September 18, and con- 



12 On the Coast of France 

sisted of the yacht U. S. S. Wakiva, the supply 
ship U. S. S. Bath, and the trawlers U. S. S. 
Anderton, U. S. S. Lewes, U. S. S. Courtney, 
U. S. S. McNeal, U. S. S. Cahill, U. S. S. James, 
U. S. S. Rehoboth, U. S. S. Douglas, U. S. S. 
Hinton, and U. S. S. Bauman. With these also 
arrived six i lo-foot patrol vessels, under the 
French flag. Due to the construction of the 
trawlers, which was soon proved to be entirely 
unsuited for the hard sea service required, they 
were withdrawn after a few weeks from escort 
duty and fitted for mine-sweeping. 

It was during this period that the United 
States armed transport Antilles in convoy with a 
group of three transports and store ships and 
escorted by the Corsair, Alcedo, and Kanawha, 
was torpedoed and sunk, on the seventeenth of 
October, outside of Quiberon Bay. No sign of 
a submarine was seen. The total number of 
persons on board the Antilles was 237, of whom 
167 were rescued by the escorting yachts. 

During the month of October, 1917, the coal- 
burning destroyers U. S. S. Smith, U. S. S. 
Preston, U. S. S. Lamson, U. S. S. Flusser, and 



First Months of the War 13 



U. S. S. Reid, arrived from Queenstown where 
they had been receiving training. They w^ere 
accompanied by the U. S. S. Panther, a supply 
ship, which had acquired historical interest as a 
transport in 1898 during the war with Spain. 
The addition of this small destroyer flotilla was 
of inestimable value, for the yachts, until this 
time, had been required to perform the entire 
patrol and escort duty, including the deep-sea 
troop convoys for which they were structurally 
wholly unsuited and inadequate. 

It is interesting to imagine the hopes and fears 
of those early days of our participation. In the 
ancient port of Brest but a few remnants of the 
French fleet remained. The streets of the gray 
town were deserted. Gone were the seamen that 
for centuries had given it its glory; gone too 
were the young men, now fighting and dying 
on the northern lines of France. Small indeed 
must have seemed these first contributions from 
the great ally beyond the Atlantic. A few con- 
verted yachts, a few destroyers; that was all. 
And yet, within the brief span of a year this 
almost deserted harbor was to become dense with 



14 On the Coast of France 

shipping. Great transports were to swing at 
moorings beyond the breakwater. Wasplike de- 
stroyers were to ride at their buoys in the inner 
harbor in rapidly increasing numbers. Khaki- 
clad soldiers by the hundred thousand were to 
look upon the gray town and pass on to their 
duty in the north. And from nothing, the estab- 
lishment of the United States Naval Forces 
in France was to expand, with characteristic 
American enterprise, into a vast coherent or- 
ganization, embracing in its manifold ramifica- 
tions the complete machinery for the successful 
accomplishment of the tremendous work in 
hand. 

The first six months of our activities on the 
French coast were in a large part a period of 
experiment. The force was entirely inadequate; 
the ships soon proved unsuited for the work re- 
quired and the officers and men of the reserve 
force were new to the work. There has been 
little glory credited to the work that was per- 
formed, for it was at no time a kind of work 
with which glory associates most freely. Here 
was drudgery and danger; a silent service 





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The landino' at P)rest 



First Months of the War 15 

secretly to be performed. It was work for which 
a destroyer flotilla of the largest and fastest ves- 
sels would have been none too good. But such 
vessels were not available. The yachts were 
sent. As months passed by came slowly the coal- 
burning destroyers. Later came the great oil 
burners, and the yachts disappeared into the 
obscurity of hazardous coastal convoys and the 
deep-sea convoys of merchantmen in the rough 
waters of Biscay. 

On October 21, 1917, Captain Fletcher was 
detached, and shortly after, Rear-Admiral 
Henry B. Wilson arrived to take up the com- 
mand. To Captain Fletcher should be given 
the credit for the inception and early organiza- 
tion of our naval forces on the French coast, 
credit which alone can offset the trials and dis- 
appointments of those early days. With the ar- 
rival of Rear-Admiral Wilson began the second 
and final period; a period of constant organiza- 
tion and amplification. Fortunately endowed 
in generous measure with those executive qu^ali- 
ties characteristic of an American naval officer, 
Admiral Wilson was still further happy in the 



i6 On the Coast of France 

possession of a diplomatic nature and keen sym- 
pathy with the French people. With the limited 
tools available, he planned and executed a pro- 
gram which proved itself in its attainment of the 
desired end. And, as the means for prosecuting 
his purpose were increased, he developed his 
plans the further to assure their more perfect 
accomplishment. 

On November 27, 19 17, the destroyers U. S. S. 
Roe and U. S. S. Monaghan arrived at Brest 
from Saint-Nazaire. Utilized previously for 
deep-sea escort duty from the United States they 
had never before touched at a French port, turn- 
ing always in mid-Atlantic and returning to the 
United States. On this occasion, however, they 
had been assigned to escort the U. S. S. San 
Diego, on which Secretary of War Baker made 
passage to France, and arriving at Saint- 
Nazaire, found it necessary to proceed north to 
Brest for coal. As this duty was unforeseen, 
they were without coastal charts and proceeded 
to explore their way through the perilous mine 
and submarine zones with a large ocean chart as 
their only guide. Ignorant of the coast, they 



First Months of the War 17 

first explored the Bay of Douarnenez, but find- 
ing no city there, they kept on up the coast. In- 
asmuch as their ocean chart did not show the 
channel of Raz de Sein, they did not find it, and 
passed around it into the Iroise. A message was 
sent to them to avoid the Iroise, but as that also 
was not shown on their chart, they were forced 
to ignore the warning. Happily, they finally 
reached Brest without accident, where they were 
later permanently joined to the destroyer force 
there. The destroyer U. S. S. Warrington 
joined the Brest forces at about the same time. 

In the middle of December, the torpedo boats 
U. S. S. Truxton and U. S. S. Whipple reached 
Brest, and shortly after, arrived the U. S. S. 
Wadsworthy the first thousand-ton destroyer to 
be assigned to the French waters. 

In the forepart of 191 8, the Stewart and War- 
den, two of our oldest torpedo boats, made a 
hazardous but successful transatlantic passage in 
the extreme weather of midwinter. On Febru- 
ary 18, 1918, the repair ship Prometheus^ the 
torpedo boat Macdonough and the converted 
yacht Isabel moored in the harbor, and with the 



1 8 On the Coast of France 

passing months the fleet was further augmented 
by the arrival of the destroyers Porter, Wain- 
write, Jarvis, O'Brien, Benham, Winslow, Dray- 
ton, Gushing, Tucker, Burrows, Cummings, 
Ericsson, Fanning, and McDougal. These were 
followed later by the first of the new flush-deck 
destroyers: Little, Sigourney, and Conner; and 
about a month before the signing of the armi- 
stice these were followed by the Taylor, String- 
ham, Bell, Murray, and Fairfax. A fourth 
flotilla of yachts arrived during February, under 
the command of Commander David F. Boyd, 
U. S. N., and included the U. S. S. Nokomis, 
U. S. S. Rambler, and U. S. S. Utowana and the 
tug Gypsum Queen. Another yacht, the U. S. S. 
May, was also added to the force, having pro- 
ceeded to Brest from Portugal, where she had 
left a number of submarine chasers which she 
had escorted across the Atlantic. In addition 
to these vessels were also added during the fore- 
part of the year, the tugs Barnegat and Concord 
and the repair ship Bridgeport. On the eleventh 
of November, 191 8, when hostilities were sus- 
pended by the armistice, the United States 



First Months of the War 19 

Naval Forces in France comprised a total of 
thirty-five destroyers, five torpedo boats, eight- 
een yachts, eight tugs, nine mine-sweepers, 
three repair ships and one barracks ship, three 
tenders, and one salvage vessel. 

Much has appeared in magazines and news- 
papers of the actual debarkation of American 
troops on French soil. Of those landing in Eng- 
land, or the ports of other countries, we are not 
here concerned. It is the purpose of this narra- 
tive to deal solely with the activities of the Amer- 
ican Naval Forces in France, and accordingly 
only with those troop ships and store ships 
which sailed from American ports directly to 
ports in France. The first American troops 
reached Saint-Nazaire on June 26, 1917. Per- 
haps never in the world's history, has the deeper 
and finer sentiment of a nation been so thor- 
oughly aroused as on that famous day when 
the first few thousands of khaki-clad soldiers 
touched foot on the soil of France. A nation by 
nature of the deepest sentiment, the people of 
this seaport town, realized in this slender van- 
guard the vivid expression of a friendship begun 



20 On the Coast of France 

in our own struggle for national freedom and 
sustained for a century and a half with almost 
unbroken continuity. 

During the second half of 1917, a constantly 
increasing flood of American soldiers were 
transported in safety to the shores of France. 
With the new year, a greater volume began to 
arrive and in the month of January, 25,280 men 
were landed. February showed a slight loss, 
with a total of 17,483, which was ofifset by the 
total of 53,043 in March and 62,615 in April. 
In May, the full flood began with a total of 
119,110. In June, 104,249 were landed, a num- 
ber which increased in July to 133,993. There 
was a sudden drop in August to 93,376, but the 
September quota of 143,253, established a new 
record, closely followed by a total of 107,547 
in October. The grand total for the ten months 
of 1918 was 859,949. 

There is no more inspiring sight than, the 
arrival of a troop convoy and the description 
of a single instance may illustrate, as character- 
istic, any of the one hundred and two troop con- 
voys which arrived during these ten months of 



First Months of the War 21 

19 18. At dawn the convoy of eight troop ships 
which had been proceeding in a double line of 
four ships each, formed single column, with 
three destroyers on either flank. The sea was 
calm and the sun rose in a soft-blue, cloudless 
sky. On the eastern horizon a white lighthouse 
lifted sharply from the thin line of the coast. 
The great troop ships, famous liners of other 
days, rose and fell heavily on the low swells, 
their high sides stripped and blocked in a strange 
dress of blue, gray, white and black camouflage, 
their decks brown with a solid mass of soldiers 
straining their eyes to catch a first glimpse of 
France. High overhead, two great yellow 
French dirigibles moved with smooth rapidity. 
From four gray hydroplanes, soaring in wide 
circles, came the distant reverberation of motors. 
On either hand the destroyers, lean, lithe sea- 
whippets, shook their dipping bows and rolled 
in the swells with a quick jerking motion. Over 
the water came the sound of music; an Army 
band was playing on board the nearest transport. 
The convoy passed into the channel. On the 
south, great brown rocks lifted from the sea, 



22 On the Coast of France 

and on either side of the entrance to the harbor, 
the black cliffs of Finistere, like twin Gibraltars, 
marked the approach. The convoy, steaming 
slowly, moved up the channel. The broad blue 
harbor of Brest unfolded, crowded with ship- 
ping. In the outer harbor great steamers 
swung at their moorings, and behind the break- 
water the water was gay with camouflaged ves- 
sels, clusters of destroyers and the gray hulls of 
two great repair ships. Beyond the harbor 
swung the circle of the green hills of Finistere, 
and on the left the gray and ancient city of Brest 
rose sharply from the historic fortress at the 
water's edge. Quietly the destroyers slipped into 
the inner harbor and the transports anchored 
outside the breakwater. They were " over ; " de- 
livered safely through the danger zone by the 
United States Naval Forces in France. 

Such, in general, was the work of the Navy in 
French waters during the sixteen months of its 
activity. It was a labor unenlivened by those in- 
spiring engagements between ships of a class 
which marked our naval activities in these 
waters a century and a half before. Rather, it 




THE LEVIATHAN 




TROOP SHIP AT P>REST 




A FRENCH DIRIGIBLE 




GERMAN SEA MINES 



First Months of the War 23 



was a struggle with a force secretive, elusive, 
and mysterious. There were thrusts in the dark 
from an unseen enemy; there were engagements 
fought and won between ships invisible to each 
other. Never could there be a moment of re- 
laxation; never did an empty ocean, blue under 
a summer sky or gleaming in the moonlight, 
assure the absence of the enemy. Great vessels 
under escort were torpedoed, vessels of coast- 
wise convoys and vessels of the deep-sea traffic 
were sunk, but small was the percentage of loss 
compared with the numbers of the mighty argo- 
sies that in safety sailed the sea and of greatest 
significance stands the fact that not one loaded 
transport was destroyed or the life of a single 
passenger lost. Few were the absolute confirma- 
tions of the destruction of submarines, but later 
events have disclosed a mortality that does com- 
pliment to Yankee perseverance and the depth 
charge, that frightful enemy of the submarine, 
which took lavish toll of the sea-wolves of the 
underseas. 



CHAPTER II 

BUILDING THE MACHINE 

THE arrival of Rear-Admiral Henry 'B. 
Wilson at Brest on Thursday, November 
I, 1917, and the hoisting of his flag on the U. S. 
S. Panther, marked the beginning of the second 
and final period of our naval activities in French 
waters. On the staff of the Admiral v^ere Com- 
mander John Halligan, Jr., U. S. N. Chief of 
Staff, Lieutenant Mahlon S. Tisdale, U. S. N., 
and Lieutenant J. G. F. Reynolds, U. S. N. R. F., 
who had accompanied Admiral Wilson from 
Gibraltar. Admiral Fletcher's stafif was assimi- 
lated and this small nucleus grew to some 
seventy officers before the armistice was signed. 
It is impossible adequately to chronicle the 
development of these months of organization and 
accomplishment. From the first establishment 
of Captain Fletcher, the organization was con- 

24 



Building the Machine 25 



sistently developed to meet new requirements 
constantly arising, requirements necessitating 
the occupation of quarters on shore which finally 
extended to the complete equipment which 
existed at the final suspension of hostilities. 
Offices were acquired and new space was con- 
stantly added. Quarters for men on shore duty 
were provided. Offices for the pay department 
were secured; a department that at the close of 
the war was in itself a complete organization, 
handling a volume of business undreamed of by 
any of our own Navy Yards, with the probable 
exception of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, in the 
former days of peace. To maintain good order 
throughout the city, a naval patrol was estab- 
lished. A great post office, which in one day 
received fifteen thousand sacks of mail, was 
created. Coal, oil, and water facilities for the 
ships were planned and arranged for. Com- 
munication systems were instituted. And in all 
these various activities, a cooperation was main- 
tained with the French authorities, both mari- 
time and civil, unbroken in the consistent spirit 
of enthusiastic friendliness. 



26 On the Coast of France 

The rapidly increasing importance of the 
United States Naval Forces in France required 
a coherent and yet flexible organization under 
single leadership, and on the twelfth of January, 
191 8, after calling Admiral Wilson to London 
for conference the first definite amplification of 
the organization of the United States Naval 
Forces in France was outlined by Vice- Admiral 
Sims, Commander United States Naval Forces 
operating in Europe, to Rear-Admiral Wilson. 
Under this new organization. Admiral Wilson 
received the title of " Commander United 
States Naval Forces in France " and took com- 
mand of all United States naval vessels operat- 
ing in French waters. As a result of this com- 
prehensive command, the organization was nat- 
urally divided into two parts: the naval forces 
afloat, including all ships assigned to duty in the 
Channel and the Atlantic coasts of France, and 
the Port Organization and Administration, 
comprising the three districts of Brest, Lorient, 
and Rochefort, with an officer of captain's rank 
in command of each of these districts. 

Aviation, under the command of Captain H. 



Building the Machine 27 



I. Cone, was also included under the command 
of Rear-Admiral Wilson, but due to the many 
problems in this new branch of naval activities, 
a free hand was given to Captain Cone in the 
building up and perfecting of the naval avia- 
tion service and it may be considered practically 
a distinct organization during the phase of con- 
struction and until the stations began to operate 
against the submarines. 

Commander W. R. Sayles, U. S. N. (naval 
attache in Paris) was placed in command of the 
Intelligence Service, and Captain R. H. Jack- 
son, U. S. N., became an officer on Admiral Wil- 
son's staff, to act primarily as liaison officer be- 
tween the Admiral and the French authorities, 
although the right naturally remained to Ad- 
miral Wilson to deal directly with the French 
Ministry of Marine if he should so desire. As 
an addition to the Intelligence Service, a counter 
espionage service was organized under the com- 
mand of Commander Sayles, and in order to 
clarify the work, the various activities were sep- 
arated into six principal fields: 

Naval Forces Afloat; Port Organization and 



28 On the Coast of France 

Administration; Aviation; Intelligence; Com- 
munication; Supplies and Disbursements. 

In regard to the control of shipping, it was 
determined that all troop and cargo transports 
and other vessels flying the American flag should 
be escorted to their wharf, anchorage or buoy by 
the Navy, and that thereafter, their subsequent 
movements, until they should be ready to leave 
port, should be controlled by the Army or Navy, 
according to whom their cargo belonged, and 
that, upon leaving port, they would again re- 
vert to naval control. 

In accordance with this outline. Admiral Wil- 
son designated the three districts as follows: 

Brest to include the territory extending 
from Brehat to Penmarch, including Ushant; 
Lorient, the territorv from Penmarch to Fro- 
mentine, including Belle-Ile, and Rochefort, the 
territory extending from Fromentine to the 
Spanish line and including the outlying islands. 

The district commander in charge of each of 
these districts received immediate control of 
operations of all vessels placed under his com- 
mand and was further charged with the re- 



Building the Machine 29 

sponsibility of repairing and supplying of 
vessels assigned to his district; the development 
and maintenance of adequate naval port facili- 
ties; the establishment and maintenance of all 
communication with the Commander United 
States Naval Forces in France, the prefet mari- 
time, the naval port officer of the district, and the 
other district commanders and the supervision of 
American shipping and of United States naval 
personnel on merchant ships. 

Naval port officers at all of the principal 
ports, were established, reporting immediately 
to their respective district commanders. The 
duties of these port officers were primarily to 
facilitate the berthing, discharging, and sailing 
of United States troop and store ships, a duty 
which included all of the arduous details which 
constantly present themselves whenever ship- 
ping in any quantity is present. Among the 
many duties assigned to port officers, the follow- 
ing were perhaps of major importance : 

To cooperate with the United States Army 
and the French authorities in the despatch of 
vessels; to keep the Commander United States 



30 On the Coast of France 

Naval Forces in France and the district com- 
mander promptly informed of the arrival and 
the departure of all United States vessels; to 
obtain from the commanding officers or masters 
of these vessels upon their arrival, all interesting 
information regarding the incidents of their 
voyage and their particular needs; to inspect the 
United States naval armed guard and radio 
men on all United States vessels, other than those 
regularly commissioned in the United States 
Navy and report on their efficiency; to assist in 
supplying these vessels with necessary fuel and 
supplies; to pay the armed guard and furnish 
them with clothing and small stores; to investi- 
gate offences committed by United States naval 
personnel on vessels other than those regularly 
commissioned United States naval vessels; to 
investigate and take action on all admiralty cases 
involving United States Navy; to keep the 
Commander United States Naval Forces in 
France informed of the readiness of all vessels 
and of the speed which they were capable to 
maintain through the danger zone; to familiar- 
ize the masters of ships with the precautions 




A sea plane makes a IkuI dive. Destroyers to the rescue 




The destroyer Monaghan 




The haninier-liead bow of a dcstrover 




Depth charges on the stern of a destroyer 



Building the Machine 31 

and the prescribed convoy scheme to be followed 
within the danger zone; to furnish each con- 
voy and its escort commander, prior to sailing, 
with the latest information regarding submarine 
and mine activities and to keep the commander 
in France constantly informed as to the amount 
of Navy coal on hand, expended and received. 
It has been ever a part of the Navy's duty to 
stand ready to assume responsibility for the ful- 
fillment of whatever work might be required to 
prosper the best interests of the Nation, for 
which the Navy has been and must continue to 
be its outward manifestation throughout the 
world. To create an organization, such as con- 
ditions in France required, sufficient not only 
to meet temporary needs, but also future re- 
quirements and at the same time to carry on an 
active warfare with a powerful enemy, was a 
commission of the most grave responsibility, for 
it required not only the abilities of trained men 
of business, endowed with native American en- 
ergy and promptness of decision, but there were 
also required those traits which are presumed 
to attach solely to trained diplomats. For in all 



32 On the Coast of France 

this tremendous operation and creation, it was 
necessary to maintain the utmost harmony and 
cordiality with a people speaking a different 
tongue and accustomed to those more composed 
and conservative methods of accomplishment 
generally characteristic of an older nation. 

Throughout the entire history of our naval co- 
operation with the French nation, a spirit of 
cordiality and cooperation was consistently 
maintained. Nor were these relations broken by 
a single incident to mar the perfect accord. The 
following telegram was received by Admiral 
Wilson on July i, 1918, from the French Vice- 
Admiral Schwerer and seems particularly felici- 
tous in the exact expression of the spirit exist- 
ing between the two natfons : 

On July 4, 1917, there arrived in our waters the first eight 
ships of war sent to France by the United States to fight with us 
against the enemy's piracy. These vessels were the yachts Harvard, 
Vedette, Kanaivha, Sultana, Chr'tstabel, Noma, Corsair and Aphro- 
dite. Since that period these vessels have constantly collaborated 
with us in the protection of convoys and we have all been wit- 
nesses of the ardor and the devotion brought by their personnel 
to the difficult and sometimes ungrateful tasks of the patrols. 

This squadron was the vanguard of a flotilla of ships, each 
day more numerous and more powerful, which arrived from the 
other shore of the ocean to take part in the fight. 

At the moment when the anniversary of the arrival in Brest 
of this vanguard approaches, I am sure that I am the interpreter 



Building the Machine 33 

of all the officers, petty officers, and enlisted men of the divisions 
of Bretagne, in addressing to our American comrades the expres- 
sion of our fraternal esteem and of our warm admiration of your 
great nation which has not hesitated to throw itself into the most 
terrible of wars for the defense of Right, of Liberty, and of 
Civilization. 

(Signed) Vice-Admiral Schwerer, 

Commandant Superieur des Divisions de Bretagne. 
Brest, July i, 1918. 

On July 4, 1918, the following telegram was 
received by the Commander United States 
Naval Forces in France, from the Minister of 
Marine: 

At the moment when the magnificent battalions of the Ameri- 
can Army are marching in Paris past the statues of our cities un- 
justly occupied by the enemy, thus affirming the high ideals of 
justice which lead them to fight by the side of our soldiers, I am 
particularly happy to address to you my most cordial regards in 
recognition of the perfect and devoted cooperation which our 
naval forces in Brittany have not ceased to find with the Ameri- 
can naval forces placed under your high direction and the system- 
atic harmony of views and sentiments which has not ceased to 
reign between us. 

Rear-Admiral Wilson replied: 

To the Minister of Marine: 

It is a great honor and satisfaction to receive the cordial good 
wishes expressed in your message of today. The American Navy 
is proud of its privilege of working with the French Navy, a serv- 
ice for which we have the highest admiration. Our personal asso- 
ciation with the flag officers of your Navy has been an inspiration 
to me. 

(Signed) H. B. Wilson. 



34 On the Coast of France 

On September 2^, 1918, Rear-Admiral Henry 
B. Wilson, U. S. N., Commander United States 
Naval Forces in France was promoted to the 
rank of vice-admiral, U. S. N., and his flag 
was hoisted on the flagship Prometheus. 

There are times when only statistics can give 
a definite conception, and a few figures selected 
from the mass of data relating to these impres- 
sive operations may indicate in some measure 
the scope of the accomplishment. From noth- 
ing, on July I, 1917, the United States Naval 
Forces in France had grown by October i, 191 8, 
to an establishment of 22,111 officers and men; 
of these 1,422 were ofiicers. Afloat, the per- 
sonnel numbered 601 officers and 7,480 men. 
Of the shore forces, 160 officers and 2,187 men 
were distributed among the three base organiza- 
tions; 71 officers and 207 men among the port 
offices, 578 officers and 9,789 men among the 16 
naval air stations; 24 officers and 488 men with 
the naval railway battery; 18 officers and 556 
men with the high power radio detachment and 
27 officers and i;8 men on detached staflf service. 

During the first nine months of 1918 an ap- 



Building the Machine 35 

proximate total of 7152,402 troops was convoyed 
safely through the danger zone and landed at 
French ports. On one day alone sixteen ships 
containing over forty thousand men were 
brought in safety into a single port. Two hundred 
and sixty convoys, comprising 1,499 vessels, were 
convoyed, during the same period through the 
zone, proceeding either to French ports or home- 
ward bound. And this was accomplished by 
a fleet, all told, which reached eighty odd ves- 
sels only a few weeks before the armistice was 
signed, and was manned by approximately eight 
thousand officers and men. 

- During the closing months of the war, the ac- 
tivities of the base at Brest assumed proportions 
far in excess of the anticipation of any of those 
who contributed to the early days of its estab- 
lishment. Repairs to escort vessels, transports, 
merchant ships, and vessels wrecked by storm or 
collision, or torn by torpedoes, necessitated op- 
erations similar to those required by the most 
modern Navy Yards in the United States. Re- 
pair shops afloat and on shore were working in 
shifts, in order that the vast volume of work 



36 On the Coast of France 

might be accomplished. The administrative 
force had been constantly increased to keep pace 
with these developments and a continuously 
growing number of enlisted men had required 
additional barracks on shore. 



CHAPTER III 

IN THE PATH OF THE SUBMARINE 

IN THE many engagements between Allied 
vessels and German submarines in French 
waters the fortitude of the officers and crews of 
the smaller merchantmen and particularly of 
the French fishing vessels afforded many dra- 
matic instances. Due to the limited number of 
French and American patrol vessels it was but 
natural that many of the smaller vessels took a 
"long chance" and endeavored to make their 
way unescorted along the coast. Many of these 
vessels were attacked and a large number were 
destroyed; but out of the total number of en- 
gagements there are several which particularly 
illustrate the temper of the French seaman in 
the face of almost overwhelming odds. 

At about eleven o'clock of the morning of 
December 4, 1917, the St. Antoine de Padoue, 

37 



38 Ofi the Coast of France 

a three-masted sailing vessel left Britton Ferry 
for Fecamp. She was making about three pr 
four knots in a S. S. E. direction when a shell 
fell about two hundred meters ofif the starboard 
bow and a violent explosion was heard astern. 
The pilot who was standing on the poop deck 
with the captain saw the submarine which was 
headed N. E. at a distance of four thousand 
meters on the port quarter. " General quarters " 
was immediately sounded; the captain ordered a 
zigzag course to be followed in order to confuse 
the aim of the submarine, and opened fire with 
his own guns. After seventeen shots had been 
fired by the St. Antoine, the submarine sub- 
merged and disappeared. The engagement had 
lasted fifteen minutes and no damage was done 
to the sailing vessel. But fifteen minutes later 
the submarine reappeared and resumed firing at 
a slightly increased distance. The first shell fell 
short on the starboard side. The captain 
promptly responded with his stern gun and re- 
sumed his zigzag, but within a few minutes the 
sighting piece of the gun was shot away and 
damage to the breech put the gun temporarily 



* > ii i^iftBK*'3 t*' ' t . 




)(.strovers waitinu im an inccmiinL; ccmi\(.i\ 




Troop ship escorted by a destroyer and two sea planes 




Observation lialloon on a destroyer 





-V' 



„ ^ 



The ballonn ^fi'ig up 



In the Path of the Submarine 39 

out of action. Undaunted, the captain maneu- 
vered to bring his forward gun into action, 
but a shot from the submarine struck the port 
side of the sailing ship, inflicting severe damage. 
In spite of the heavy fire which continued, the 
men stuck to their posts and continued what 
seemed to be a hopeless struggle. At the darkest 
moment, however, a British hydroplane made its 
appearance and caused the submarine to sub- 
merge. This was the third time that the St. 
Antoine had escaped after having been attacked 
by German submarines and the captain had al- 
ready been cited as a result of these engage- 
ments. 

On another occasion, the St. Antoine de Pa- 
doue was engaged in fishing ofif Fecamp. While 
the crew were attending to their nets, a small 
boat with two leg-o-mutton sails appeared on the 
horizon at a distance of two or three miles. In 
waters frequented by fishing boats the appear- 
ance of a craft of this nature would not normally 
attract attention, but in this particular instance 
the vessel sighted seemed to be pursuing a course 
parallel to the course of the St. Antoine, at a 



40 On the Coast of France 

rate of speed in excess of that justified by the 
small size of her sails. The suspicions of the 
captain were promptly aroused and he sent his 
crew to battle stations. Gradually the courses 
of the two ships converged and the St. Antoine 
fired a shot, hoping that the suspicious vessel 
would show a signal. No signal, however, ap- 
peared and a few minutes later the sails were 
hauled down and a conning tower was clearly 
seen in silhouette against the horizon. For some 
reason unknown, no attack was offered, probably 
due to the apparent readiness which the captain 
of the St. Antoine showed for battle; and shortly 
after the submarine disappeared and the St. 
Antoine proceeded on her course. 

Another interesting attack was reported as 
having occurred on the ninth of January, 1917, 
against the French steamer Barsac, bound from 
Brest to Le Havre. The Barsac, entirely dark- 
ened, was proceeding at a speed of about ten 
knots, when at 6:31; P.M. a torpedo suddenly ex- 
ploded against the side, opposite No. 3 hatch, 
promptly filling the engine-room with water. 
The ship filled rapidly by the stern and sank in 



In the Path of the Submarine 41 



three minutes. No one on board saw either the 
submarine or the torpedo. 

With the utmost calmness the crew manned 
the boats, the captain alone remaining aboard 
the stricken vessel. When the ship went down 
the captain was dragged after her by the suction, 
but coming to the surface was rescued about 
twenty minutes later by one of the ship's boats. 
The surviving members of the crew were finally 
picked up by a patrol boat, but eighteen men 
were lost. 

On December 21, at a little after one o'clock 
in the morning the Portuguese steamer Boa Vista 
in convoy with five other ships escorted by two 
French patrol boats, the Albatros and the Sau- 
terelle, were proceeding north, enroute for 
Quiberon. The sea was calm and the night clear 
and brilliant although there was no moon. No 
sign of submarine activities appeared on the still 
water. Suddenly, the Boa Vista was struck by 
a torpedo on the starboard side a little forward 
of the bridge. For half an hour the ship sank 
slowly by the bow. The patrol boats " stood by," 
rescuing the crew and endeavoring to take in tow 



42 On the Coast of France 

the lifeboats which she had launched. Suddenly 
the conning tower of the submarine appeared at 
a distance of five thousand meters and fired a 
second torpedo at the Boa Vista which sank 
rapidly and disappeared five minutes later. 

Early in January, the steam trawler St. 
Mathieu left Brest on her way to the fishing 
grounds about one hundred miles S. S. W. of 
Raz de Sein. In the morning of the sixth, when 
seventy-seven miles S. W. of Belle-Ile, the look- 
out sighted a boat on the horizon and a few 
seconds afterward a shell passed over the St. 
Mathieu. The captain promptly hauled in his 
nets, sent his crew to battle stations and heading 
for the enemy, opened fire with his bow gun. 
A few minutes later, a shell from the submarine 
shattered the upper part of the bridge, wound- 
ing the man at the wheel and another near the 
bow. Encouraging his crew, the captain of the 
trawler continued his action until another shell 
from the submarine mortally wounded three of 
the guns' crew, but undaunted, the only survivor 
continued to fire until the ammunition was ex- 
hausted. The submarine was now relatively 



In the Path of the Submarine 43 



near the trawler and her fire was extremely ac- 
curate. By this time, out of a total crew of thir- 
teen on board the trawler, four were killed, four 
badly wounded, and all of the remaining were 
suffering from minor injuries. 

It was now necessary to abandon ship and the 
captain with the survivors put ofif in a small boat. 
A few minutes later the submarine sank the 
St. Mathieu by gunfire and promptly sub- 
merged. Then followed thirty hours of great 
suffering on the part of the crew of the trawler, 
all of whom were more or less wounded. A 
heavy sea was running and navigation was diffi- 
cult. The night was very dark. Toward morn- 
ing a patrol vessel heard the cries of the sailors, 
but in her attempt to effect a rescue, ran into the 
lifeboat and capsized it, with the result that four 
of the crew were drowned. The survivors of 
the St. Mathieu were landed at La Palice on the 
morning of the eighth of January and later the 
captain was awarded the Military Medal and all 
of the members of the crew were cited in orders. 

At about noon on the tenth of October, 1917, 
the captain of the French ship Transporteur, 



44 On the Coast of France 

was exchanging semaphore signals with the 
Afrique II, a French patrol boat, when he no- 
ticed in the sunlight, at a distance of about three 
hundred meters, the wake of a torpedo coming 
toward him, a little forward of the beam. He 
immediately steamed ''hard-right," reversed his 
engine and warned his escort by whistle. Un- 
fortunately his action, although prompt, proved 
unable to avoid the path of the torpedo, which, 
striking the ship at the water line, caused a ter- 
rific explosion and brought down the forward 
mast. The ship listed and forty seconds later 
the water was almost even with the forecastle. 
For a brief period the vessel remained standing 
almost perpendicular, its propeller continuing to 
turn rapidly in the air; then perpendicularly 
and like an arrow shot from a great height, 
it dived into the sea. Of the twenty-four men 
comprising the crew, twenty-one survivors were 
rescued by the Afrique ii, while swimming in 
the wreckage. 

The engagement of the French steamer La 
Ronce with an enemy submarine, is another ex- 
ample of French fortitude. Sighting a torpedo 



In the Path of the Submarine 45 

on the port beam headed in a direction which 
would undoubtedly bring it up opposite the en- 
gine-room, the officer of the deck put his rudder 
"hard-left" with the result that the torpedo ex- 
ploded by No. 4 hatch, tearing a large hole in 
the side of the vessel. The stern gun being de- 
stroyed, the captain manned his forward gun, 
but could not locate the submarine. Little by 
little, the ship settled by the stern and the after 
part of the deck being submerged, the water 
began to enter the engine-room through the 
hatchways. Seeing that it was impossible to 
keep his vessel afloat much longer, the captain 
ordered her to be abandoned and the crew em- 
barked in boats in a heavy sea. As several of 
the boats had been destroyed by the explosion, 
those that were launched were overloaded and 
when the order was given by the captain to 
" push off," he realized their crowded condition 
and remained on board the sinking ship with the 
engineer officer and radio officer and with them 
went down with the ship. 

The Voltaire II was bound for Nantes. Sail- 
ing from Gibraltar on the eighth of December, 



46 On the Coast of France 

1917, the captain opened his secret instructions, 
issued in the event of his leaving the convoy, and 
proceeded about one hundred and forty miles 
in a new direction. The night was very dark 
and the ship was without lights. At twenty 
minutes to four a torpedo struck the ship near 
the stern, tearing loose the mainmast and throw- 
ing it on the bridge. The wireless antenna was 
carried away by the falling mast and the water 
rose so rapidly that it became impossible to use 
the auxiliary antenna. Due also to the rapidly 
rising water, the boats were jammed against the 
davit-heads and with the exception of the port 
whaleboat, which was launched with four men, 
none of them could be lowered. The ship dis- 
appeared in three minutes, taking with her the 
captain and the greater part of the crew. About 
twenty-four sailors were rescued by the whale- 
boat. Sail was made and the boat was headed 
for Belle-Ile, in a heavy sea. It was cold and the 
boat was so overloaded that it was difficult to 
keep it afloat. The men for the most part, were 
about half dressed and became rapidly ex- 
hausted. During the evening of the twelfth, the 




The British mystery ship Dunraveii. under fire from a sub- 
marine. The white smoke at the stern is from 
an exploding shell 




The Dunraveii sinking 




Tlie Philniucl (Rritisli) sinking after being torpedoed 




The last of the Pliiloiiwl 



In the Path of the Submarine 47 

light of Penmarch was seen, but soon after the 
mast broke and it became necessary to continue 
with the oars. A few hours after, they passed a 
convoy and later a single ship, but their signals 
of distress were unnoticed. Finally, at noon they 
were sighted by the French trawler which res- 
cued the men and took them to Lorient. Two 
died from the cold and exposure. At no time 
before or after the torpedoing did anyone see 
the submarine or its periscope. 

On her way from St. Malo, to join a convoy 
of sailing vessels, the French schooner Jermaine 
was attacked by a submarine which opened with 
four shells and followed with a volley of fire, 
meanwhile circling the sailing vessel. The 
Jermaine was ably commanded by a former 
sergeant of colonial infantry who promptly 
organized the crew and prepared to defend the 
ship at all hazards. The sea was running so 
high that it was impossible to see the submarine 
except at rare intervals. Climbing into the rig- 
ging, in order personally to watch the shots 
which were fired by the Jermaine whenever the 
enemy became visible between the troughs of 



48 On the Coast of France 

the sea, the captain tacked to run with the wind 
in order to make use of his two guns. So ac- 
curate was the fire of the sailing ship that at the 
fourth shot from the Jermaine, the submarine 
abandoned the struggle and rapidly changed its 
course. 

The British ship Austradale left Milford 
Haven on the sixteenth of October, 19 17, in a 
convoy of twenty-five ships, proceeding in 
columns of eight. Her position was No. i in the 
left column. About three days out, the Austra- 
dale sighted at a distance of approximately three 
miles, an object which appeared to be a capsized 
fishing boat. The captain gave the signal " Sus- 
picious object sighted " and now believes it was 
put there by the submarine in order to divert 
his attention from the subsequent attack which 
came from the opposite side. At all events, 
while watching the object, the ship was suddenly 
torpedoed on the port side, on a line with the 
engine-room, and sank in three minutes. The 
forty-five surviving members of the crew em- 
barked in a whaleboat and two dinghies. The 
boats were well provided with food and as 



Ill the Path of the Submarine 49 

clanger was imminent, the convoy proceeded and 
the small boats were soon lost in the night. For 
seven days, the crew navigated their small craft 
in heavy seas, covering a distance of 330 miles. 
During this period, one man becarne insane and 
jumped into the sea. Leaks developed which 
required constant baling and reduced the sur- 
vivors to a state of almost complete exhaustion. 
Two of the dinghies reached Port Kerrel, but 
one of the men later died of exhaustion. The 
whaleboat, containing twenty-four men, was 
never heard from. 

On September 16, 1918, the Rambler rescued 
forty-one survivors from the British S. S. Philo- 
mel and carried them into Lorient. The Philo- 
mel was the leading ship of the right column of a 
south-bound convoy from Brest to La Palice and 
the Rambler was one of the escorting vessels. 
No submarine or torpedo was seen at any 
time, nor was the submarine detected by the lis- 
tening devices. The Philomel was struck on the 
starboard side, under the bridge, and, following 
the explosion, she swung to starboard out of the 
column and was immediately abandoned. At 



50 On the Coast of France 

6:14 P.M., about thirty minutes after being 
struck, the Philomel began to sink by the bow, 
taking a very sharp angle until her bow seemed 
to rest on the bottom. A minute later she dis- 
appeared from sight, with steam escaping and 
her whistle blowing. 

Relatively few were the disasters which befell 
American troop and store ships. And of those 
sinkings which occurred, the large majority were 
among the empty vessels homeward bound. 
Perhaps the slightly inferior escorts which took 
out the returning ships may have been the reason, 
but it is more probable to suppose that the enemy 
found a resistance on the part of the eastward- 
bound convoys which would have been unmeas- 
urably intensified by the knowledge, on the part 
of the officers and crews of both escort and con- 
voy that American lives other than their own 
and property necessary for the prosecution of 
the war were resting in their protection below 
the vessels' decks. 

Particularly to the credit of all concerned, 
was the salvaging of the ships West Bridge, 
Westward Ho, and Mount Vernon. Only 



In the Path of the Submarine 51 

through the indomitable perseverance of the 
officers and men were these wounded vessels 
brought into port. The story of their rescue is 
one of the silent epics of the war. 

The torpedoing and rescue of the Westward 
Ho has been told in a previous chapter but the 
incidents attendant on the attacks on the West 
Bridge and Mount Vernon deserve mention in 
this narrative. 

There was unusual activity of enemy sub- 
marines to the west of the Bay of Biscay during 
the early part of August, 1918, and three vessels, 
the U. S. S. A. C. T. Montanan of 6,659 t^^is 
gross, the U. S. S. A. C. T. West Bridge of 8,800 
tons gross, and the U. S. S. A. C. T. Cubore of 
7,300 tons gross were torpedoed. 

The Montanan was struck when proceeding in 
convoy at about 7 P.M. on August iS and sank at 
3 P.M. on the following day. The yacht Noma, 
acting in the escort, took aboard eighty-one sur- 
vivors and reported that five of the personnel 
were missing. 

The U. S. S. A. C. T. Montanan reported that 
three torpedoes were fired. Of these she sue- 



52 On the Coast of France 

ceeded in dodging two, but was hit by the third 
torpedo abreast of the after end of the engine- 
room. The explosion smashed a boat and put 
the radio completely out of commission. The 
ship settled rapidly and it was in abandoning 
ship that the two members of the armed guard 
were drowned. 

At one o'clock in the morning on August i6, 
the West Bridge was torpedoed within a few 
miles of the spot where the Montanan was sunk. 
She was proceeding in the same convoy, but 
had fallen back due to engine trouble and for 
some hours prior to her attack her engines had 
stopped entirely. While lying in this extremely 
vulnerable position, she was struck by two tor- 
pedoes in quick succession, the second torpedo 
being visible at the moment when the first tor- 
pedo went home. The Concord, Smith, and 
Barnegat were despatched to her assistance, but 
the destroyers Drayton and Fanning which were 
standing by her, were required to leave her on 
the afternoon of August i6 to join a convoy. One 
officer and three men were missing, probably 
killed by the explosion in the engine-room. The 



In the Path of the Submarine 53 

ninety-nine survivors were taken into Brest by 
the U. S. S. Burrows. 

At the time of the arrival of the West Bridge 
in Brest, it was calculated that only one per cent 
of the normal buoyancy of the hull before load- 
ing, remained. The calculated buoyancy having 
been reduced from ten thousand tons to one 
hundred tons. 

The Cubore was struck on August i^ at 
ten o'clock in the evening and sank an hour 
later. Fifty survivors including the captain and 
the armed guard were taken off by the French 
gunboat Eiourde. 

The JVestover of the Naval Overseas Trans- 
portation Service was torpedoed on the morn- 
ing of the eleventh of July, 1918, and sank 
forty minutes later. The vessel left New York 
in convoy, but it had been forced to drop behind 
because of engine troubles; due primarily to the 
inexperience of her engineer force with turbine 
machinery. These troubles were later overcome 
and at the time she was torpedoed, the Westover 
was making her speed and endeavoring to over- 
take the convoy. She was struck by two tor- 



54 On the Coast of France 

pedoes. The first struck on the starboard side, 
abaft No. 3 hatch and the second aft on the port 
side. Her cargo contained 1,000 tons of steel, 
2,000 tons of flour, 10 locomotives and 14 motor 
trucks, a deck load of 400 piles and 250 tons of 
second-class mail. 

The Warrington arrived on the scene within 
a few hours of the time of the sinking of the 
vessel. Five boats containing the survivors made 
the French coast in the vicinity of Brest; but 
three officers and eight enlisted men were lost. 

On September 5, 1918, the U. S. S. Mount 
Vernon, westward bound from Brest for the 
United States was proceeding in company with 
the U. S. S. Agamemnon. At a little before 
eight in the morning, her watch sighted a sub- 
marine forward of the beam, in a position be- 
tween the Mount Vernon and the Agamemnon. 
The Mount Vernon immediately dropped five 
depth charges and fired one shell in the direction 
of the periscope. Ten seconds later the ship re- 
ceived the torpedo amidships on the starboard 
side, between fire-rooms three and four, killing 
thirty-five of the engine- and fire-room force and 




Tlie bow of the von Steuben after collision vviili the 
Agamemnon 



In the Path of the Submarine 55 

wounding twelve. The Mount Vernon accom- 
panied by three destroyers started to return to 
Brest at a speed of six knots, which was later 
increased to fourteen knots, arriving at Brest 
about midnight; the Agamemnon continued her 
voyage westward. 

On receipt of the news of the disaster, the 
Sigourney, with two other destroyers and the 
U. S. S. Barnegat and Anderton were sent 
out from Brest to assist in escorting the Mount 
Vernon into port. At the time of her departure 
from Brest, the Mount Vernon was drawing 
twenty-nine feet aft. On her return she was 
drawing thirty-nine feet, five inches aft and 
thirty-three feet forward; four of her fire-rooms 
being completely flooded. She was also listing 
10° to port. From the time the torpedo struck 
the ship until its arrival in dock, in Brest, all of 
the officers and men worked untiringly on 
pumps, handy-billies, and buckets, putting addi- 
tional shores on the bulkheads and reinforcing 
hatches and doors. The Mount Vernon docked 
at Brest, repaired and later was again put into 
commission. 



56 On the Coast of France 

The U. S. S. Buenaventura, an American 
cargo transport of 8,200 tons, sailed from Le 
Verdon in convoy on the fourteenth of .Septem- 
ber, 19 1 8, and was struck by two torpedoes and 
sank in six minutes, shortly after the convoy had 
been dispersed and the escort had left on its way 
to the rendezvous of the incoming convoy. So 
sudden was the attack and the final plunge of the 
vessel that only three boats were able to get 
away. All reports indicate that the behavior 
of the officers and crew was excellent; the cap- 
tain devoted his entire efforts to save his crew, 
declining to the very last to make any effort to 
leave the sinking ship. A motor sailer and an- 
other boat which succeeded in getting away 
were picked up by the French destroyer Teme- 
raire, and brought into Brest, and a third boat, 
containing the commanding officer, the executive 
oflicer, and twenty-seven men reached Corunna, 
Spain, after a number of days at sea. 

One of the last cargo carriers to meet de- 
struction by a submarine was the U. S. S. A. C. 
T. Joseph Cudahy, which was struck by two tor- 
pedoes on the seventeenth of August, 19 18. The 



In the Path of the Submarine 57 

first torpedo struck the Cudahy in the fuel tank; 
the second in the engine-room. Two submarines 
took part in the action. After abandoning ship, 
the captain of the Cudahy was taken on board 
one of the submarines and questioned concerning 
the destination and whereabouts of the convoy. 
Sixty-two members of the crew were lost. 

A study of the circumstances, surrounding the 
torpedoing of the Justicia, President Lincoln, 
Covington, Tuscania, Antilles, and Tippecanoe, 
as well as a number of other vessels, shows that 
all of these were sunk by quartering shots. This 
indicates that the probable procedure of the sub- 
marine was to submerge in advance of the con- 
voy and at right angles to its course, having esti- 
mated from previous bearings the convoy's gen- 
eral direction and the probable nature of the 
zigzag, emerging when its hydrophones indi- 
cated that the convoy had passed. From such a 
position, the danger to the submarine would be 
materially reduced, inasmuch as the convoy 
would be soon in advance of the position occu- 
pied by the submarine; provided, of course, that 
no escort was occupying a position astern of the 



58 On the Coast of France 

convoy. High speed on the part of the vessels 
attacked, would naturally, from this supposition, 
prove a great asset of safety. 

Large as were the dangers due to the sub- 
marine, it is to the credit of the yachts and de- 
stroyers on the French coast that the record 
of the American debarkation in France was 
achieved, and also, that of the ships which were 
lost, the great majority were homeward bound 
and hence empty of troops or cargo. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE CONVERTED YACHTS 

IT IS fair to presume that in the years to come 
the part which the United States Navy 
played in the Great War will be in a large part 
judged by the safe conduct of troop and store 
ships to and from the coast of France. As the 
territory stretching from Switzerland to the Bel- 
gian coast formed the front line of our land 
forces, so the fighting front of the United States 
Navy may be considered, in the large part, the 
western coast of France. 

During the long months of submarine warfare 
bodies of troops were safely transported across 
the Atlantic, escorted through the submarine 
danger zone and landed on foreign soil, in num- 
bers never exceeded by any similar instance in 
the history of the world. Not only was an army 
thus convoyed in safety, but, and of equal im- 

59 



6o On the Coast of France 

portance, were the vast quantities of stores neces- 
sary for its subsistence and for the prosecution 
of the war carried safely through an area in- 
fested with enemy submarines. To meet the 
enemy two classes of vessels were assigned to the 
work. Of these the destroyers were by their con- 
struction best fitted for the duty required and 
their service for this reason was in many ways 
of paramount value, but credit must not be 
slighted to the yachts, which although manned 
in a large measure by relatively inexperienced 
reserve officers, and themselves being by con- 
struction entirely unfitted for the service, per- 
formed a duty the value of which can never be 
adequately estimated. 

In the preceding: chapters has been briefly 
sketched the story of the arrival of the fleet of 
converted yachts and the general nature of the 
duties they were required to perform. To the 
average conception a yacht is primarily a grace- 
ful pleasure craft, immaculate with white paint 
and gleaming brightwork, with snowy decks and 
awnings and pillowed wicker chairs on the after 
deck. The yacht is by birth and breeding a 



The Converted Yachts 6l 



member of a wealthy aristocracy; a frequenter 
of social gatherings. She is a vessel found only 
on summer seas, in sparkling harbors gay with 
flags; at regattas and in those places where 
wealth and fashion meet. 

Of the fleet that sailed originally from the 
United States, three may be erased from the list 
of active participants, for the Guinevere lies 
broken on a reef and the Alcedo and Wakiva 
rest somewhere beneath the restless surface of 
the Bay of Biscay, the former torpedoed by the 
enemy, the latter rammed by night by a ship of 
her convoy. As the months passed there was 
soon a noticeable change of aspect, soft white 
decks became torn and dented by hob-nailed 
boots and the heavy gear which was hauled over 
them. Long rows of depth charges, ash-canlike 
cylinders charged each with three hundred 
pounds of high explosive filled the graceful 
curve of their fantails. Squat " Y" guns, heavy 
mortars to discharge simultaneously two depth 
charges, one on either side of the vessel, crowded 
the hand steering gear on the after deck. Saloon 
windows repeatedly shattered by heavy seas or 



62 On the Coast of Fratice 

the detonation of the guns and depth charge were 
boarded up. Below decks similar changes ap- 
peared in worn and battered furnishings re- 
peatedly stained by sea water straining through 
leaking decks. 

A few months after her arrival the graceful 
bowsprit of the Noma was removed and an acci- 
dent later carried away the head of the golden 
figure-head on her bow. But like She of Sam- 
othrace, the headless goddess, in a coat of 
battle gray, braved to the end each wave that 
crashed over her dipping bow. 

Down in the wide roadstead of the Gironde 
six of the yachts were finally gathered, as one 
by one the destroyers took over the troop ship 
convoys into the northern ports. But if the safe- 
guarding of human lives was denied them, their 
new duty of the safe delivery of the ever increas- 
ing fleet of store ships was of almost equal im- 
portance. Manned for the most part by the 
same crews but officered largely by newcomers 
to the force their arduous, monotonous, and dan- 
gerous work went steadily on. 

Behind the white tower of the lighthouse at the 



The Converted Yachts 63 

entrance to the Gironde a great arm of the land 
holds back the sea from the sheltered roadstead 
before Le Verdon. To the north of the entrance 
the old seaport town of Royan fills a hollow of 
the shore, and on the cliff that sweeps seaward 
rise the high white villas of a fashionable sum- 
mer colony. Two hours run up the muddy river 
are the wharves of Trompeloup, where the great 
naval air station was established, and where from 
hog-backed colliers swinging hard to ebb or 
flood in the swift stream, the yachts drew their 
coal at the end of every run. Two or three hours 
farther up the river were the great docks of 
Bassin where the stout freighters discharged 
their cargoes and where miles of American 
tracks and hundreds of American cars assembled 
by American mechanics in an American shop at 
La Rochelle, received stores innumerable. 

Still beyond, within sight of Bassin, lies Bor- 
deaux, fan-shaped, its broad base against the 
stone docks along the south bank of the river. 
There were other ports from which and to which 
the yachts escorted the merchant convoys; but in 
the latter days of the war the bulk of their con- 



64 On the Coast of France 

voy work centered in the Gironde. Fifty and a 
hundred freighters at a single time rode at 
anchor before Le Verdon. Coal-burners and 
oil-burners; ships of the lake type, built in 
states far inland and launched in fresh water; 
ships of standard design in which all sense of 
elegance or line was subordinated to the grim 
necessities of utility, tramp steamers, fruit 
steamers, and passenger vessels that once 
touched southern ports. Here were ships from 
all the Allied world; from the South American 
republics; from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Japan, 
France, England, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, 
Russia. Here were ships flying the tricolor of 
France, and most numerous of all were the ships 
that flew the flag of the UNITED STATES. 

Gray, battered, and still grimy with coal dust, 
the yachts dropped down the river from a weari- 
some night of coaling at Trompeloup. Like 
gray shadows, they passed among the freighters 
which, painted in a wild nightmare of camou- 
flage, seemed like honest and stolid citizens too 
consciously arrayed for some fancy carnival. 

Slowly, with steam-wreathed bows, the heavy 



The Converted Yachts 65 

anchors of the store ships were lifted from the 
muddy bottom of the river and they stood down 
the channel to the sea, hoists of signal flags 
flung from diminutive masts and semaphore sig- 
nalmen waving madly from the bridges. Like 
sheep dogs, the yachts and the small French 
patrol boats herded the convoy consisting usually 
of from ten to thirty freighters, ^' in ballast," to 
the open sea. Overhead the seaplanes soared 
like strange gray flying fish, too high above their 
native element, motors snarling and throbbing 
on the wind. 

There were bright days when the harbor 
seemed a gay picture, and there were all too 
frequent days of low gray clouds and a heavy 
green sea beyond the bar. Then followed long 
days and longer nights of uneventful monotony. 
By day the convoys followed the zigzag course 
prescribed by the escort commander; by night 
the darkened ships held a straight course unless 
a moon and a calm sea required a continuation 
of the zigzag. 

Clinging to an open bridge in seas so heavy 
that they were constantly drenched with bucket- 



66 On the Coast of France 

fuls of spray the officers of the escorting yachts 
watched their plunging charges wallow in the 
sliding seas, now lost to sight behind a cresting 
wave, now pitched high against the sky, half- 
bared propellers churning the sea. There were 
interminable nights of anxiety when the convoy 
scattered in the blackness and four thousand-ton 
freighters were running wild in a wilder sea; 
invisible, ungovernable leviathans, careening far 
out of their courses, liable without warning to 
loom out of the darkness high above the bridge 
of a yacht reeling on the flank or in the rear of 
the convoy. There too were nights and days 
of fog and rain; opaque days and nights when 
the convoy became a nightmare. And there 
were starlit nights and days of blue skies and 
bluer seas. But the days and nights of fog and 
darkness held the never-to-be-forgotten hours of 
hardship. 

All day and night, unremittingly, the eyes of 
the watchers strained for a tell-tale sign of lurk- 
ing submarine, a slick of oil along the surface 
of the sea, a trail of bubbles, a cloud of birds 
hovering above cast-up refuse or the fleeting 



The Converted Yachts 67 

periscope caught for a second and then lost 
among the waves. 

Two or three days out at sea the signals were 
given and the yachts and French destroyers 
abandoned the convoy to the comparative safety 
of the open sea and stood off to the rendezvous 
where they would intercept the incoming laden 
convoy. Then at some hour of night or day the 
contact would be made, and several days later 
the shores of France would again rise on the 
eastern horizon and another convoy with its al- 
most priceless cargoes would be carried in safety 
to the shelter of the harbor. 

But better than a description in general terms 
of the service performed by the yachts in the 
long months of the war may be a brief recount- 
ing of a few instances of the service which they 
performed in maintaining intact "the bridge to 
France." Spectacular as some of these adven- 
tures may seem, they formed but incidents in a 
dreary routine, and it is not exceeding truthful 
statement to remark that these engagements and 
disasters served to relieve a hardship which 
otherwise would have been almost insufferable 



68 On the Coast of France 

At about two o'clock on the morning of No- 
vember 5, 1917, the converted yacht Alcedo, 
while proceeding on the starboard flank of a con- 
voy, bound from Brest to Saint-Nazaire, ap- 
proximately seventy miles west of Belle-Ile, 
sighted a submarine on the surface at a distance 
of about three hundred yards on the port bo\y. 
The Alcedo turned with full right-rudder, but 
was struck by the torpedo on the port bow and 
sank almost immediately. One officer and 
twenty men were killed or drowned in the dis- 
aster. Due to the suddenness of the attack and 
the darkness of the night, the other escorting 
vessels were for a time ignorant of the Alcedo's 
fate and proceeded with the convoy. Putting 
off from the sinking ship in two dories, three 
officers and twenty-five men were picked up by 
fishermen and towed to the vicinity of Pte. 
de Penmarch. The remaining survivors in a 
whaleboat and two dories pulled toward Pen- 
march, and thirteen hours later were picked up 
by the French torpedo boat No. 275 and were 
taken into Brest. 

The reports from all concerned indicate that 



The Converted Yachts 69 

the action of the officers and crew of the Alcedo, 
upheld the finest traditions of the service. The 
following letter was received by Rear-Admiral 
Wilson, from Vice-Admiral Schwerer, Com- 
mandant Superieur des Petrouilles de UOcean 
de la Manche Centrale: 

In the name of the entire personnel of the patrol squadrons of 
the Channel, I seek to express to you the regret which we feel on 
account of the loss of that good patrol ship the Alcedo and our 
brave comrades who have disappeared with that ship. 

They have joined in the struggle which we are waging together 
for the victory of right and humanity and their deaths will go far 
toward drawing closer the bonds which unite our two naval forces. 

We shall cherish their memory and shall strive to avenge them. 

Please accept my dear Admiral, my sympathy and my most 
cordial good wishes. 

On the twenty-eighth of November, 1917, the 
yachts Kanawha, Noma, and JVakiva were pro- 
ceeding with a convoy consisting of the S. S. 
Koln and S. S. Medina. The convoy had sailed 
from Quiberon in the afternoon and were fol- 
lowing the prescribed zigzag and formation. At 
6: 20 P.M. the lookout on the Kanawha reported 
a periscope on the port beam, very close and 
headed for the Medina. The Kanawha made 
the necessary signals, went full speed ahead and 
turned left-rudder in the direction of the 



JO On the Coast of France 

submarine. Immediately the submarine sub- 
merged, search by all three vessels of the escort 
failed to locate it and signals were accordingly 
made for the convoy to reform and proceed. At 
6: 50 P.M. the Noma sighted a periscope on her 
starboard beam, apparently steaming to the 
northward. She immediately made signal and 
swung with right-rudder, at the same time re- 
leasing two depth charges. Twelve minutes 
later the Wakiva again sighted a periscope, this 
time at a distance of not more than a hundred 
yards. The submarine drew rapidly aft and was 
apparently steaming toward the convoy, but 
quickly appeared to swing in order to bring to 
bear a bow tube on the Wakiva. The Wakiva 
turned promptly with left-rudder, forcing the 
submarine to cross her wake, and at the same 
time fired three shots from the port aft gun, 
the third shot apparently striking the periscope. 
Shortly after she also released two depth charges, 
both of w^hich functioned. A minute later the 
conning-tower of the submarine emerged and 
the Wakiva opened fire with her starboard for- 
ward gun, the second shot detonating. The 



The Converted Yachts 71 



conning tower immediately sank, and as the 
Wakiva passed over the spot a large number 
of air bubbles were seen coming to the surface, 
and a quantity of wreckage also appeared. The 
Wakiva promptly let go two more depth charges 
on the spot, and, turning, again passed near the 
spot, when her commanding officer thought he 
saw the shapes of three men clinging to a piece 
of wreckage and hailed them but received no 
answer. On passing near the place a fourth time 
the men had disappeared. 

Meanwhile the Noma continued her search 
and at midnight, sighting a periscope on her 
starboard bow, turned toward it and passing over 
it, let go a number of depth charges but with no 
results. 

From the evidence, it appears that two sub- 
marines were preparing to attack the convoy 
and that one of these was destroyed by the 
Wakiva. This is further confirmed by the fact 
that about 8:45 P.M. the radio operator on the 
Noma heard a vessel sending in German code 
with low power and apparently in the imme- 
diate vicinity. The vessel called three times, 



72 On the Coast of France 

sending the same message each time without 
waiting for a reply. The sea was smooth 
throughout the action and the moon was shining 
dimly through a slightly overcast sky. 

On the twenty-third of December, 19 17, the 
Norwegian S. S. Spro, of about 1,500 tons gross, 
loaded with coal, was proceeding from Cardiff 
to La Palice. At Brest, she joined a south- 
bound convoy which was proceeding to Quib- 
eron. 

This convoy consisted of five vessels, the Spro 
being No. 4. The last ship, a small French 
steamer, was well in the rear. The yaghts 
Sultana and Emeline formed the escort and were 
proceeding on either flank of the convoy. 

The sea was comparatively smooth and the 
moon had risen about one point on the starboard 
quarter in a slightly clouded sky. Suddenly the 
officer of the deck of the Emeline felt a pro- 
nounced jar passing through the ship, similar to 
that caused when a gun is fired from the deck. 
At the same instant a black column of water 
and debris rose high above the masts of the Spro. 
In less than a minute the stern of the Spro sank 



The Converted Yachts 73 

beneath the surface of the sea, and in another 
minute and a half the vessel entirely disap- 
peared, leaving a mass of wreckage floating in 
a heavy oil slick. At the same time, a dark 
object was observed about a hundred yards be- 
yond the Emeline, to port of the column and to 
windward, and a pronounced odor of exhaust 
gases was perceptible on the breeze. The Eme- 
line headed directly for the object but it quickly 
disappeared. A boat was then launched in an- 
swer to the cries of the men swimming in the 
water, and the Emeline circled about the 
spot where the Spro had gone down. Eight 
men cleared the ship, one of whom was not 
recovered. 

On the fifth of January, 1918, a convoy of 
fifteen ships left Brest for Quiberon, escorted 
by two American yachts, the Wanderer and the 
Kanawha. The convoy was formed in two 
parts, the S. S. Luckenbach being No. i in the 
right column. The S. S. Le Cour, S. S. Dagny 
and S. S. Kanaris being Nos. i, 4, and 7 respec- 
tively in the left column. At about 1 1 : 30 A.M. 
when approximately eight miles west of Pen- 



74 On the Coast of France 

march, the lookout at the port cathead of the 
Le Cour saw a torpedo jump out of the water. 
A second later the torpedo struck the ship abreast 
No. 4 hatch and the Le Cour sank in forty-five 
seconds. Half an hour later, a torpedo struck 
the Luckenbach, the force of the explosion 
throwing several men into the sea. The Wan- 
derer which was nearest by saved twenty-five 
members of the crew and remained in the vicin- 
ity for several hours, but no trace of the sub- 
marine could be found. At a quarter past one in 
the morning the captain of the Dagny sighted a 
submarine to the starboard. He immediately 
began to zigzag, blew his whistle and fired two 
lights to attract attention. Ten minutes later 
the ship was struck on the starboard side and 
sank in about two minutes. At two o'clock the 
guns' crew on watch on the stern gun of the 
Kanaris saw the wake of a torpedo about 4£;° 
to starboard. The Kanaris was struck on the 
starboard bow and sank rapidly. 

The following letter was received by Lieu- 
tenant-Commander P. L. Wilson, commanding 
officer of the Wanderer: 



The Converted Yachts 75 



From: Commander U. S. Naval Forces in France. 
To: Commanding Officer, U. S. S. Wanderer. 

SUBJECT: Officers and men U, S. S. Wanderer, manner of 
performance. 

I. The Commander U. S. Naval Forces in France congratulates 
the Commanding Officer U. S. S. Wanderer for the able manner in 
which the officers and men under his command performed their 
duty under very trying circumstances in the presence of the enemy, 
upon the occasion of the sinking of the S. S. Harry Luckenbach, 
sunk by enemy submarines on the night of January 5-6, 1918. 

(Signed) H. B. Wilson. 

About a mile east of Pte. du Talut is a low- 
lying reef which offers a constant danger to navi- 
gation. On the twenty-seventh of January, 191 8, 
a dense fog covered the water. The Guinevere 
was returning from Quiberon, and was proceed- 
ing at a speed of about nine knots, with the com- 
manding officer and a French pilot on the bridge, 
when she suddenly struck the reef tearing her 
bottom so badly that within two hours her deck 
was under water and the high swells were caus- 
ing her to pound heavily on the reef, threaten- 
ing her complete destruction. The ship was ac- 
cordingly abandoned, as it was seen that the 
case was hopeless, and later investigation proved 
the impossibility of salvaging her. Today a torn 
hull lies in French waters, a mute reminder of 



76 On the Coast of France 

the activities of an American pleasure yacht in 
her strange mission of war. 

On May 21, 1918, the Christabel sighted a 
periscope on the starboard beam at a distance 
of about three hundred yards. The crew im- 
mediately went to "general quarters" and a 
number of depth charges were dropped, set at a 
depth of seventy feet. Following the explosion 
of the second charge there was a violent third 
explosion which sent up an enormous quantity 
of water. This explosion was distinct from the 
usual double shock felt when the explosive force 
of a depth charge reaches the surface. Imme- 
diately afterward the Christabel crossed over the 
spot and found the surface for an area of a 
hundred feet in diameter covered with large air 
bubbles, much heavy black oil and quantities of 
splintered pieces of wood, evidence of the de- 
struction of another enemy submarine. 

The third of the yachts to meet her fate was 
the Wakiva. On May 22, 1918, she was proceed- 
ing with a Le Verdon convoy. A heavy fog cov- 
ered the sea, and due to a confusion of signals 
resulting from the poor visibility, the S. S. 








Picking up a life1)oat in the Bay of Biscay 




i'lckiii.L; up a lifeljoat from a toi'iicdoed ship — four dead men 
were in the partly swamped boat 






'5^^«i?^^.|l^^7~]g2^ 





The IVeshvard Ho being towed into Brest with only one 
per cent floatability 



The Converted Yachts 77 

Wabash made an unexpected change in course 
and rammed the Wakiva. The yacht sank 
rapidly and the Wakivas officers and crew were 
picked up by the Wabash, which vessel returned 
with them under escort of the Isabel to Quiberon. 

On the same day while escorting a north- 
bound coastal convoy, the Christabel detected a 
wake about three hundred yards from the con- 
voy and running parallel to it. The Christabel 
promptly steamed across the wake dropping a 
number of depth charges. About three hours 
later a submarine appeared near the convoy and 
the Christabel again steamed toward it, and as 
the submarine promptly submerged, crossed over 
the spot and dropped two more depth charges, 
both charges functioning. The first charge 
brought up only clear water, but the second 
brought up heavy oil bubbles and parts of heavy 
wood and debris. Following the second depth 
charge, an explosion was detected beneath the 
surface, which was doubtlessly a mine or torpedo 
in the submarine detonated by the concussion 
of the second depth charge. 

The U. S. S. A. C. T. Westward Ho, when 



78 On the Coast of France 

about three hundred miles off the French 
coast on the eighth of August, was torpe- 
doed. Replying promptly to an "Alio" the 
destroyers Conner, Roe, and Ericsson^ started 
to the rescue and reaching her in a few hours, 
took off surviving members of the crew. The 
Westward Ho was apparently in a sinking 
condition and as the destroyers had to pro- 
ceed on their duties as convoy escorts she 
was abandoned. The Westward Ho, however, 
remained afloat during the night and at four 
o'clock the following morning was discovered by 
the yacht Noma. After investigating her condi- 
tion the Noma put a salvage crew on board, and 
a little later the yacht May and the French tor- 
pedo boat Cassioppee having come up, the West- 
ward Ho was taken in tow. Due to the fact that 
she was apparently sinking by the head she was 
taken in tow stern first by the two yachts and the 
torpedo boat and a start was made for the French 
coast. At about 2 P.M. the British tugs Epic and 
Woonda joined up and relieved the yachts and 
torpedo boats. Due primarily to the efforts and 
ingenuity of the engineer officer of the Noma, 



The Converted Yachts 79 

Steam was started in the boilers of the Westward 
Ho, and at 4 P.M. with reversed engines she was 
started backing at good speed. At six o'clock on 
the morning of August 10, the Concord and the 
French torpedo boat Glaive joined up and the 
Concord passed a third tow line. In this man- 
ner the convoy proceeded to Brest where they 
arrived at six o'clock on the evening of August 
II, a distance of 311; miles. The cargo of the 
Westward Ho was extremely valuable and of an 
important character, and her salvage under these 
most extraordinary conditions reflected great 
credit on all of the rescuing ships concerned. 
The cargo consisted chiefly of aeroplanes, field 
artillery parts, rifles, machine guns, ammuni- 
tion, and large quantities of grain and hay. 

In forwarding the officers' reports concerning 
the salvage of the Westward Ho, the Com- 
mander United States Naval Forces in France 
commented in part as follows: 

No criticism is made of the master of the IVestivard Ho for 
having abandoned his vessel, inasmuch as her condition was be- 
lieved to be desperate and the destro5^ers which rescued her crew 
were required for duty with troop transports and could not remain 
in the vicinity. 

The salvage of the vessel was a splendid feat of seamanship. 



8o On the Coast of France 

The party from the U. S. S. Alay and U. S. S. Noma, under the 
direction of Lieutenant Thomas Blau, U. S. N. R. F., boarded the 
vessel, raised steam, pumped compartments adjacent to No. i hold 
and started the ship's propelling plant. The vessel was taken in 
tow by the U. S. S. May and Cassioppee and subsequently by tugs 
which had been dispatched from Scilly Islands and from Brest. 
With the assistance of her engines she was towed stern first for 
a distance of 315 miles. 

It is recommended that the Navy Department address letters of 
commendation to the following officers, who participated in this 
enterprise: 

Lieutenant-Commander C. C. Windsor, U. S. N., commanding 

U. S. S. May, (Senior officer present) ; 
Lieutenant H. H. J. Benson, U. S. N. commanding U. S. S. 

Noma; 
Lieutenant Thomas Blau, U. S. N. R. F., and 
Lieutenant (j. g.) W. R. Knight, U. S. N. R. F., who took 

charge of the machinery part of the vessel. 

Another aspect of the hardships encountered 
by the yachts in their convoy service may be 
taken from the log of a single trip of the Noma. 
While proceeding to a rendezvous she encoun- 
tered a severe northerly blow and the seas which 
were unusually short made it difficult for the 
yacht to take them with ease. She proceeded to 
the rendezvous, how^ever, when she slowed down, 
and soon after, a heavy sea on her bow smashed 
in the forward skylight, causing a considerable 
amount of water to leak through to the lower 
deck. The same sea also caused the forward 
deck houses to work considerably. An hour 



The Converted Yachts 8i 

later while running with the sea abeam, at a 
speed of about five knots in search for the convoy 
another heavy sea struck the starboard side dent- 
ing it and bending four frames; the same sea 
carried away a davit and part of the gunwale. 
Returning to port, having met the convoy, the 
Noma began to roll deeply, the sea being abaft 
the port beam, and the second lifeboat's strong- 
back was carried away. By this time the entire 
main deck had begun to work and the deck below 
the main deck was wet from stem to stern, of- 
ficers' rooms and the crew's living quarters were 
thoroughly drenched and all of the bedding was 
wet. 

It was hard work; long were the hours and 
brief the respite. Little has been told of the 
merchant convoys, for theirs was a work that 
required secrecy of movements, and secrecy 
shrouded the wearisome voyages. Only at rare 
intervals was the story of some sinking told by 
the crowded press. But for the most part the 
incidents of their story were incidents of negative 
action rather than of active deed. Armed with 
the dreaded depth charges the yaclTts reduced 



82 On the Coast of France 

the submarine warfare against our merchant 
shipping to a degree that rendered its effect neg- 
ligible in comparison with the vast operations 
which were carried through. In the coastwise 
convoys there were more frequent losses, but 
here a smaller individual tonnage offset the 
losses incurred. Without exaggeration it may 
be truly said that had it not been for the yachts 
and the few destroyers which aided them in the 
escort duty of the store ships, the German scheme 
of submarine warfare would have succeeded to a 
degree that would have rendered impossible the 
maintenance for a single week of our Army on 
the soil of France. And at the same time it must 
be added, that without the destroyer's, and in the 
earlier days of the war the yachts as well, the 
activities of the German submarines would have 
rendered wholly impossible the transportation 
of our Army across the sea. 



CHAPTER V 

THE DESTROYERS 

IN THE first days of the United States naval 
activities in French waters, it will be re- 
called that the duty of escorting both troop and 
store ships fell to the converted yachts. With 
the advent of the destroyers, the system was al- 
tered; and, as the number of destroyers was in- 
creased, the yachts were gradually withdrawn 
from the troop convoys and detailed to the more 
southern ports to act as escorts to coastwise con- 
voys and to the great transatlantic convoys of 
store ships which centered at the Gironde River. 
Later, as the destroyer fleet was materially aug- 
mented, a number of smaller coal-burning tor- 
pedo boats were assigned to duty with the yachts, 
considerably strengthening their force and com- 
pensating for the yachts which had been lost or 
from their months of hard service had so deterio- 

83 



84 ' On the Coast of France 

rated that their usefulness was seriously im- 
paired. 

The destroyers were ideally suited for the im- 
portant work of escorting the troop convoys. 
Possessing the invaluable qualities of high speed, 
practical armament, and seaworthiness, they 
were able to cope with every emergency and 
meet the submarine on a basis on which the 
result was certain to terminate, in the large 
majority of instances, in their favor. 

Within the breakwater, which shelters the 
inner harbor of Brest, the destroyers swung from 
buoys, moored together in clusters, great rafts of 
slender steel hulls above which lifted a tangle 
of slim masts and wireless antenna. Painted in 
fantastic camouflage and swarming with crews 
which averaged more than a hundred men, the 
destroyer flotilla that was based in the busy har- 
bor afforded a constant picture of absorbing 
interest and vitality. 

A convoy is to leave at 2 P.M. and the Benham 
casts ofif from the destroyers lying on either side 
of her and backs swiftly out into the open water. 
Sensitive and alert, she turns sharply, as her en- 




Torpedo tubes on destroyer Bculunii 




Four-inch gun crew on destroyer Dcnham 



The Destroyers 85 

gines shoot her ahead, and with a white curve 
of water, knifed up on either side of her chisel 
bow, she steams rapidly through the narrow en- 
trance. In the wide reaches of the outer harbor, 
a convoy of camouflaged liners are lifting their 
anchors, homeward bound. Slowly they stand 
down the channel between the clififs, the Ben- 
ham and the other destroyers of the escort loafing 
leisurely beside them. Outside, standard speed 
is set and the convoy heads for the open sea. 

There is no motion on land or sea comparable 
to that of a destroyer. Rolling often in five- 
second jerks at an angle sometimes over 50°, 
there is combined with the roll, a quick and vio- 
lent pitching which produces a sensation without 
parallel on any other type of vessel. To those 
familiar with the great buildings in our larger 
cities, this pitching movement of a destroyer 
may be compared with the abrupt starting and 
stopping of an elevator operating at high speed; 
a sudden sinking, in which the deck seems to 
drop away beneath the feet and then an abrupt 
upheaving motion, almost before equilibrium 
can be regained. 



86 On the Coast of France 

Like maddened switchback cars, the de- 
stroyers gyrate in the slightest sea. Grimy with 
soot of fuel oil, reeking with oil gasses, they 
reel and plunge at express-train speed. The 
officers and men on the bridge, half choked with 
frequent back drafts of gaseous oil smoke, and 
the reek from the "Charley Noble" (galley 
smokestack), peer ahead through a blizzard of 
flying spray. In the wardroom, the colored mess 
attendants balance like acrobats and with the ex- 
pertness of long experience, perform almost im- 
possible feats of juggling with plates and glasses. 
Few are the days when meals can be served even 
with racks on the tables. It is a hand to mouth 
existence, a catch-as-catch-can game in which 
the galley challenges the sea and the sea usually 
holds the cards. Even personal cleanliness be- 
comes impossible in an unstable world, where 
water will invariably find its level when the 
wash bowl slants at 41;° or 50°. Chairs are 
lashed to the bulkheads, an'd by night or day, 
when opportunity offers, officers and men roll 
into troubled bunks fully dressed, ready at a 
moment's notice to appear on deck. 



The Destroyers 87 

Within the three-eighths-inch steel hull, the 
great turbines, with the horsepower of a battle- 
ship, throb and spin, driving the whirling screws. 
There is not a foot of wasted space. In a swing- 
ing and bucking world, crammed like a watch 
case with a maze of machinery, the engineering 
crew moves like magicians in a world of steel 
and steam. Everything is steel. Everywhere 
is the smell of oil; the ship is greased with it. 
And day and night, rolling, pitching, slamming 
over, through or under the heavy seas, the de- 
stroyers brought in the convoys, meeting them 
on some square mile of Atlantic, in the reek of 
fog or the blackness of night, with unerring 
mathematical precision. 

There was a strange emotion that came to 
more than a few of our sea-borne soldiers when 
from some high deck on a stormy morning, they 
first saw the destroyer escort shaking the great 
green seas in clouds of spray from their swaying 
bows. On these sea-whippets lived men in dun- 
garees and rubber boots who met the sea and 
mastered it; men who lived in oil and spray, 
continuously balanced in a mad unstable world, 



88 On the Coast of France 

and of greatest importance in the eyes of the men 
who watched from the transport's decks, was 
the protective part in the great game of war that 
the destroyer stood ready day and night to play. 
To cast loose the depth charges, to man the 
guns, to ram the submarine if possible; these 
were the ultimate purposes of the destroyer es- 
cort. And so thoroughly did they perform their 
untiring service that our army was carried in its 
vast entirety to its mission beyond the seas and 
landed safely on the soil of France. In this 
anti-submarine warfare the depth charges 
proved to be the most efficient deterrent to sub- 
marine activity. In appearance a cylinder about 
two feet in diameter and about three feet in 
height, each charge contained three hundred 
pounds of high explosive and a hydrostatic ap- 
paratus by which the explosive was detonated 
which could be set for any depth from 50 to 250 
feet, the force of the explosion over an area of 
140 feet in diameter being sufficient to destroy 
the submarine or force it, injured, to come to the 
surface. On sighting a submarine, or locating 
it by any of the tell-tale indications of its pres- 



The Destroyers 89 

ence, such as oil slicks, or a wake of bubbles, the 
practice was immediately to drop a buoy, mark- 
ing the spot and then to proceed on a widening 
circle from this point, dropping a barrage of 
depth charges in rapid succession covering the 
entire area ahead, behind and on either side of 
the submarine, thus anticipating its movements 
of escape in any direction. 

But there is no general description of the work 
of the destroyers that can briefly convey an im- 
pression of their labors so well as a few specific 
incidents of the anti-submarine warfare waged 
by them in the historic waters of the French 
coast during the long months of war. It is im- 
possible to recount all the engagements which 
occurred; it is even more impossible to describe 
the long periods when no break relieved the 
grind of routine duty at sea. Day and night, 
month after month, they kept their flags flying. 
Their whole story, which may some day be told, 
is a narrative of arduous duty conscientiously 
performed. 

On August 9, 19 1 8, the Tucker, while leading 
a column of ten destroyers, sighted a periscope 



90 On the Coast of France 

on her port bow at a distance of eight hundred 
yards and gave chase. The submarine dived and 
the Tucker, going ahead at full speed, dropped 
two depth charges about two hundred yards 
beyond the point of submergence. She then 
dropped fourteen charges in a circle, when the 
bow of the submarine broached and the Tucker 
opened fire with four blunt-nosed shells, two of 
which scored hits. The submarine then sub- 
merged and the Tucker passed directly over the 
spot, sighting her at a depth of twenty feet and 
dropped two charges directly on her. A few 
minutes later oil appeared on the surface of the 
water and it was believed, with reason, that the 
submarine was destroyed. 

On the twenty-fourth of April, 1918, a south- 
bound coastal convoy was proceeding slowly off 
Penmarch with the Stewart acting as escort. 
About two miles to seaward of the convoy's posi- 
tion, two American naval avions were seen drop- 
ping bombs. The Stewart immediately left the 
escort and proceeded at full speed to the spot in- 
dicated by the avions, where she was joined by 
a French destroyer coming from the northward. 



The Destroyers 91 

One avion heading directly toward the Stewart, 
dropped a buoy and the observer pointed with 
his arm in the direction of the submarine. The 
sea was smooth, with a slight swell and a clear 
and distinct wake could be seen, with an object 
just breaking the surface at the end of the wake. 
The Stewart headed directly for the object and 
followed it to seaward, but the wake suddenly 
changed its direction as the object turned at 
right-angles to its original course. One of the 
avi-ons promptly circled and dropped a smoke 
bomb near the new position of the object which 
had now submerged but was still visible in the 
clear water from the bridge of the Stewart. The 
Stewart passed within fifty feet and dropped 
two depth charges in rapid succession each one 
bringing up a column of water darkened with 
a heavy oil which spread rapidly over the sur- 
face. For a time after the explosion, the water 
in the vicinity was streaked with a thick red sub- 
stance, the nature of which could not be de- 
termined. The depth charges were dropped so 
close to the submarine, one on each side and 
within fifty feet of it and the force of the ex- 



92 On the Coast of France 

plosion was so great that it seems impossible that 
the submarine could have survived. 

One of the many instances of timely interfer- 
ence of an American destroyer, which by its 
presence undoubtedly saved an attacked ship, 
occurred on the nineteenth of October, 1917. 
The American steamer /. L. Luckenbach was 
about two hundred miles west of Brest when the 
lookout sighted a suspicious ship about five miles 
on the port beam and the captain immediately 
changed his course to put the supposed enemy 
astern. At a distance of about eleven hundred 
meters the ship, which soon proved to be a sub- 
marine, opened fire, keeping, however, well out 
of reach of the Luckenbach's guns. For a con- 
siderable period heavy firing was maintained by 
both vessels, the submarine endeavoring by her 
fire to keep the Luckenbach at a distance and to 
maneuver herself into a position from which she 
might fire a torpedo. Meanwhile the Lucken- 
bach attempted to prevent the submarine taking 
this action. About two hundred shells were fired 
by each ship, seven of the enemy's striking the 
Luckenbach. At the beginning of the encounter. 



The Destroyers 93 

the Luckenbach sent an "Alio " by radio which 
was picked up by the American destroyer 
Nicholson (then attached to the United States 
squadron based at Queenstown), who responded 
that she was on her way. About the middle of 
the engagement, the Nicholson sent a new signal 
saying, "I am coming; make all possible smoke 
to make yourself visible." Shortly after, a shell 
struck the mount of the after gun of the Lucken- 
bach forcing the captain to turn the ship to the 
left in order to use his forward gun. At the end 
of two hours' engagement, a shell from the sub- 
marine struck the Luckenbach, damaging the en- 
gines, cutting the smokestack and forcing the 
vessel to stop. But an hour later, the Nicholson 
appeared over the horizon and as she neared, 
fired four shots at the submarine which sub- 
merged and disappeared. After temporary re- 
pairs, the Luckenbach continued her way and 
reached Le Havre, leaking badly and with a fire 
in the crew's quarters. 

At 9:45 A.M. on the thirty-first of May, 1918, 
the U. S. S. President Lincoln was torpedoed 
and sunk. On the first intimation of disaster, 



94 On the Coast of France 

calls were sent out to the destroyers who pro- 
ceeded promptly to the rescue of the survivors, 
the Warrington being the first one to arrive, 
reaching the spot at 11:01; A.M. Shortly after, 
the Smith appeared above the horizon and joined 
the Warrington. There were twelve boat loads 
of survivors and a number of life rafts. 

A moderate swell was running but no diffi- 
culty was experienced in effecting the rescue. 
The officers and men of both the Warrington and 
Smith showed great devotion to duty and initia- 
tive in handling a very difficult and unusual 
situation, particularly in rescuing the men ofif 
the life rafts and received a letter of commenda- 
tion from the Commander United States Naval 
Forces in France. In all, 685 Navy and Army 
officers and enlisted men were rescued. Four 
naval officers and twenty-three naval enlisted 
men were counted missing. Of these, one officer. 
Lieutenant E. V. M. Isaacs, U. S. N., was taken 
on board the submarine and later escaped from 
a German prison camp. 

On the first of July, 1918, at a quarter after 
nine in the evening, the U. S. S. Covington 




\\ here the (iestrover Jar:-is rammed the destrover BenJwi 




The bow of the Jarvis after her colHsion with the Benliam 




The side of the Bcnham after heing rammed by tlie Jarvis 




■r 







Bow of the destroyer Jarvis after collision with the Bcnhaui 



The Destroyers 95 

which had left Brest for the United States on 
the morning of the same day, was torpedoed in 
latitude 47° 24' N. longitude 7° 44' W., by a 
submarine which was not seen before or after the 
attack. Prior to the explosion, however, the 
wake of a torpedo was seen by the executive of- 
ficer, close to the ship. When struck, the Cov- 
ington was zigzagging in the front line of ap 
eight-ship convoy, escorted by seven destroyers. 
The blow was a quartering shot, just forward of 
the engine-room bulkhead, in No. q bunker on 
the port side. The bulkhead was damaged and 
the engine-rooms and fire-rooms were rapidly 
flooded. The ship took a strong list to port, but 
stayed afloat until 3:32 P.M. of July 2, 1918, 
when she sank very rapidly in the final plunge. 
Immediately after the torpedo struck, the U. 
S. S. Smith opened a depth-charge barrage and 
circled the Covington. Meanwhile, as the tor- 
pedoed ship was helpless and liable to be hit 
again, she was abandoned by the officers and 
crew in excellent order and all the known sur- 
vivors were taken on board the Smith. At day- 
light the captain and officers and twenty-two 



96 On the Coast of France 

men, together with one officer and eight men of 
the U. S. S. Reid, which had arrived on the 
scene, returned to the Covington to supervise sal- 
vage operations. The Smith was later joined by 
the Wadsworth, Shaw, and Nicholson and the 
French gunboats Conquerante and Engageante. 
At five in the morning of July 2, 1918, the Cov- 
ington was taken in tow by the U. S. S. tug Con- 
cord and the British tugs Revenger and Woonda, 
but the gradual sinking of the ship finally made 
progress impossible and after towing her ap- 
proximately twenty-five miles, the ship was 
abandoned by her salvage crew and sank in 
twenty minutes after the last man was taken off. 
The Smith, with 743 survivors, proceeded to 
Brest; and the Nicholson with the captain of 
the Covington and the salvage crew, arrived at 
the same port a few hours later. Of the entire 
crew of the Covington, only three were unac- 
counted for and three were drowned. The dis- 
cipline and courage of all of the officers and 
crew of the Covington were excellent and crews 
of the fire-room and engine-room on watch at 
the time, showed particular fortitude. 



The Destroyers cyj 

Illustrative of the dangers of navigation, when 
navigating without lights and in crowded waters, 
was the collision of the destroyers Benham and 
Jarvis. The night was very dark and there was 
a heavy fog. Both vessels were making high 
speed. Suddenly the rudder of the Jarvis 
jammed, she sheered quickly toward the Benham 
and overrode her abreast of the bridge, tearing a 
great hole in her side extending half way 
through the wardroom. The force of the blow 
tore away the bow of the Jarvis almost com- 
pletely. Fortunately, the injuries to the Benham 
were largely above wind and water and the col- 
lision bulkhead of the Jarvis held sufficiently to 
permit her to follow the Benham to Brest. 

Many were the instances of engagements be- 
tween destroyers and submarines in which the 
final outcome remains unknown. In a large 
number of instances, however, it is highly prob- 
able to presume that the submarine made a suc- 
cessful escape; but there were also many times 
when the prompt action of the destroyers must 
have proved fatal to the submarine, although no 
tangible evidence of its fate appeared. 



98 On the Coast of France 

In a smooth sea, with the sky partly overcast 
and a new moon low in the sky, the destroyer 
Cummings sighted what appeared to be the wake 
of a torpedo crossing about fifty yards ahead ol 
her bow. The rudder was put "hard-left;" the 
crew sent to "general quarters" and the Cum- 
mings shot forward at full speed and followed 
the wake which was very straight and unbroken, 
and marked with a wake of bubbles when first 
sighted. As the Cummings advanced, dense 
smears of oil were perceived on the surface, 
terminating at a distance of three hundred yards 
in a large slick. A barrage of twenty depth 
charges at ten-second intervals was dropped and 
the destroyer circled in the vicinity for half an 
hour, but no evidence of the submarine appeared. 

Another instance comes from the Benham. 
On the morning of July 9, the junior officer of 
the deck sighted a periscope on the starboard 
bow of one of the ships of the convoy. Steaming 
at full speed, depth charges were dropped sev- 
eral hundred yards before the spot was reached, 
in order to check the submarine and prevent her 
firing her torpedoes. The destroyer then circled 



The Destroyers 99 

and dropped a barrage of depth charges, but no 
wake, oil slick, or other disturbances were seen 
on the water. 

Another story of a submarine comes from the 
Reid, which was proceeding with a west-bound 
convoy on July 17. The Nicholson, which also 
was with the escort, was seen shelling an object 
to the northward and the Reid promptly pro- 
ceeded toward the point of fire, where what 
appeared to be the wash of a moving periscope 
was visible. When about a mile from the point 
and fifteen hundred yards from the Nicholson, 
the Reid saw an object break water on her port 
bow with a perceptible white wash and splash 
and a minute later the officers on the bridge 
saw a torpedo headed in her direction and to- 
ward the convoy. The Reid immediately began 
to drop depth charges to deflect, or if possible, 
destroy the torpedo, which was proceeding, at 
times broaching bright in the sunlight, at a high 
speed. After about ten minutes, a wake was 
sighted and a number of depth charges were 
dropped. The depth charge next to the last one 
appeared to counter-mine and exploded what 



lOO On the Coast of France 

was thought at the time, to be another charge 
which might have been let go at approximately 
the same time. This second explosion was near 
the surface and caused a heavy dull shock and 
concussion over a wide area. Later, it was found 
that two charges had not been let go simultane- 
ously and it was therefore presumed that the 
dull shock was caused by an explosion within the 
submarine. 

The two words, "suspicious object," appeared 
frequently in the reports of the destroyers, for 
whenever a suspicious object was sighted, action 
by the destroyers invariably followed. During 
one of the summer months of 1918, the Mc- 
Dougal sighted a dark slate-colored object like 
a low mound, at a distance of about seven miles. 
She proceeded immediately at a speed of about 
thirty knots toward the object, which began to 
move in a northwesterly direction. The crew 
were sent to "general quarters," manning the 
guns and torpedo tubes, depth-charge throwers 
and releases. By this time the object showed a 
second low hump about sixty feet to the left, 
but no periscope, gun, or deck line was visible. 



The Destroyers lOl 

and a few minutes later the object disappeared. 
Heading for the spot, two depth charges were 
dropped on a slight oil slick which appeared, 
but there were no other indications of the pres- 
ence of a submarine. 

At about sunrise on the morning of the fifth 
of October, while standing into the harbor at 
Brest, a torpedo was sighted by the Bridgeport 
about one hundred and twenty-five yards from 
the ship, running so close to the surface that its 
whole outline could be seen. It was at first 
thought that the torpedo would strike the ship in 
the vicinity of the mainmast, but it finally passed 
clear of the rudder and so close, that it was 
seen by a number of people looking over the fan- 
tail. Upon sighting the torpedo, the speed of 
the Bridgeport was increased and the rudder 
swung "hard-left," which prompt action un- 
doubtedly saved the ship. 

The Fanning which was escorting the Bridge- 
port, immediately dashed through the convoy at 
a speed of twenty-two knots and headed in the 
direction from which the torpedo was fired, 
searching for traces of oil. A small patch of 



I02 On the Coast of France 

oil was finally discovered and six depth charges 
were dropped at ten-second intervals. On sight- 
ing some more oil ahead, the Fanning dropped 
a number of additional depth charges, and then 
perceiving a heavy oil wake about a thousand 
yards ahead, followed it at full speed. Ap- 
proaching the slick, a clearly marked zigzag was 
perceptible, as if the submarine were going 
deeper and slowing down. The oil was heavy 
and a strong oily smell was noticeable. More 
depth charges were dropped and the search was 
continued for a number of hours but no further 
indications of the presence of a submarine ap- 
peared. 

It is now believed that the submarine which 
attacked the Bridgeport was later sunk by a 
French patrol boat with a three-hundred pound 
American depth charge in a position about seven 
miles north of lie de Sein, in about thirty 
fathoms of water. The patrol boat sighted the 
periscope of the submarine at a considerable dis- 
tance on the bow and passing over the spot 
where the submarine submerged, dropped depth 
charges. The listening apparatus established the 




Thornycroft depth-charge thrower 



The Destroyers 103 

fact that the submarine remained on the bottom 
and additional depth charges which were re- 
leased produced a heavy persistent oil patch. 
The patrol boat remained in the vicinity all 
night and the submarine was not heard to move. 
There is another story in the following extract 
from the diary of the flotilla, a simple statement 
ungarnished by details, of a trip that is probably 
not yet forgotten by those who participated in its 
stormy adventures : 

The Roe, Monaghan, and Warrington returned from danger zone 
escort duty with troop and store ships, having weathered the gale 
of the past few days. The Monaghan lost her foremast and the 
Roe her mainmast. Both vessels lost boats. The Warrington lost 
her liferafts. 

Such was the weather off Finistere on the nine- 
teenth of December, 1917. 

The story of American naval activities in 
French waters is relatively free from those dis- 
asters which seem an almost certain part of any 
great activity, and the single grave disaster, the 
burning of the Florence H. gives emphasis to 
our great good fortune in this respect, in spite 
of the constant dangers, other than those of the 
submarine, to which our ships were constantly 



104 ^^ ^^^ Coast of France 

subjected while in port; dangers due primarily 
to the vast quantities of high explosives and in- 
flammable stores with which they were loaded. 
The Florence H. was anchored in convoy at 
Quiberon Bay on the seventeenth of April, 1918. 
At a quarter to eleven in the evening, a violent 
explosion on board wrecked the vessel. The 
cause has never been determined, but as she was 
loaded with powder and there is little likelihood 
that a submarine could have penetrated into 
Quiberon Bay it seems plausible that the ex- 
plosion was internal. 

The Florence H. had been at anchor about 
half an hour when the explosion occurred. At 
the moment of the disaster the destroyer Stewart 
was passing at high speed. From the descrip- 
tion later made by the Stewart's commanding of- 
ficer, the Florence H. burst suddenly into flame, 
like a flare of flashlight powder. At intervals 
the flame died down sufficiently to permit the 
outline of the ship to be clearly visible, then sud- 
denly, the incandescent glare increased again 
until nothing could be seen but a mass of flame 
rising from the water. In about five minutes the 



The Destroyers 105 

forward part of the ship began to break up aijd 
at rapid intervals loud explosions of ammunition 
occurred. Then the sides of the vessel fell out- 
ward and the surrounding water was strewn with 
burning boxes of powder. The Stewart turned 
from her course and headed in toward the after 
section of the Florence H. which had still held 
together, with the hope of rescuing the survivors 
of the crew. In addition to the Stewart, the de- 
stroyers Whipple and Truxton and the yachts 
Wanderer, Christabel, Sultana, Emeline, Co- 
rona, and Rambler, aided in the rescue; and 
gallant work was performed by the rescuing 
parties who proceeded in small boats from the 
various ships as close as possible to the burn- 
ing ship. Of seventy-five people on board the 
Florence H. at the time, thirty-four were res- 
cued, although many of the survivors were 
severely burned. 

In a very few minutes after the fire had broken 
out, great masses of burning wreckage spread 
over the sea to the leeward and burst into sud- 
den flame as the ammunition and powder cases 
exploded, shooting long tongues of fire and 



io6 On the Coast of France 

bursts of gasses into the air with a roar which 
rose above the sound of the burning ship. But 
the rescue parties from the various ships pushed 
fearlessly into the burning mass of wreckage, 
ignoring the powder cases which were constantly 
exploding around them, and by their prompt 
work were responsible for the saving of the sur- 
vivors. 

On May 3, Vice-Admiral Moreau, prefet 
maritime of Brest, boarded the U. S. S. Stewart 
and with the crew drawn up for muster pinned 
on Lieutenant H. S. Haislip, the commanding 
officer of the Stewart the croix de guerre for his 
splendid work in rescuing the survivors of the 
S. S. Florence H. under very dangerous circum- 
stances at the time of her destruction. Admiral 
Moreau then addressed the ship's company and 
complimented them in the warmest terms on the 
fine work which they had accomplished. 

And on September 26, 1918, a second interest- 
ing ceremony took place on board the Stewart, 
in the harbor of Brest, when Frank Upton, quar- 
termaster, third class, U. S. N. and Jesse W. 
Covington, ships cook, third class, U. S. N., were 



The Destroyers 107 

decorated with the Congressional Medal of 
Honor for their heroic action in jumping over- 
board and saving the wounded from the Flor- 
ence H. at the time of her explosion and destruc- 
tion by fire. In presenting these medals, the 
Commander United States Naval Forces in 
France, said in part: 

While the department has designated these two men, the honors 
were not limited to these; for the whole ship's company, with their 
ship, have all consistently distinguished themselves. 



CHAPTER VI 
OTHER ACTIVITIES 

THE chief work of the Navy in France was 
naturally to patrol the sea and to wage an 
anti-submarine warfare; but there were also 
other activities of the naval forces which should 
be included in an account of its work abroad 
during the war. Books could, and doubtless will 
be written covering fully these activities, and it 
is with reluctance that only such brief mention 
can be given here. But at least this slight nar- 
rative may give some intimation of the con- 
stant dangers and hardships in which the officers 
and enlisted men of our naval forces in France 
participated. 

For centuries the surface of the sea has alone 
afforded the setting for naval activities ; but with 
the entrance of the hydroplane and the dirigible 
balloon into modern warfare strange tales of new 

io8 



Other Activities 109 

adventures and achievements in another element 
have been written into the annals of the sea. 

But as the purpose of this narrative is to deal 
primarily with the activities of the men who 
went down to the sea in ships, and as by the close 
of the war the naval air establishment had 
reached a size and scope which would require an 
entire volume adequately to describe, it seems 
advisable to give here only a brief resume of this 
important work and a few graphic instances of 
naval cooperation on the sea and in the air. 

The aviation forces of the United States Navy 
in France made its first establishment on the 
French coast under the general command of the 
Commander United States Naval Forces in 
France, with Captain Hutch I. Cone in imme- 
diate command. Organized originally to com- 
prise three air stations situated at Dunkirk and 
at the entrances to the rivers Loire and Gironde, 
the number was constantly increased until at the 
close of the war a continuous fringe of United 
States and French naval air stations for hydro- 
planes and dirigibles lined the coast from Dun- 
kirk to the Spanish boundary. Due to the fact 



I lo On the Coast of France 

that the French aviators and planes were in a 
large measure withdrawn from the coastal work 
in the earlier months of the war for land service 
on the German lines, the arrival of the American 
forces afforded an invaluable and greatly to be 
desired assistance at a time when the im- 
measurably increased coastal and deep-sea traffic 
due to the entrance of the United States into the 
war created a proportionate increase of subma- 
rine activity. 

By the close of the war the entire coast was 
included in a comparatively complete system of 
air patrols, and plans were nearing completion 
for a series of fifty American and French stations 
to control intensively the entire seacoast. 

At the beginning, the work of the American 
forces was purely of reconnaissance, and the con- 
voy patrols were carried on entirely by the 
French avions from their bases at the larger 
ports. Later, a proportion of the convoy work 
was undertaken by the American aviators and 
three kite-balloon stations were established at 
Brest, Lorient, and La Trinite. 

The value of the hydroplane and the dirigible 




Destroyers alongside the Bridgeport at Brest 




Another view of tlie destroyers showing camouflage 



Other Activities iii 

in naval warfare cannot be overestimated. Pos- 
sessing a high speed, a wide range of operation, 
a relative safety from attack and operating at 
an altitude from which observation over a vast 
area is possible, the aviator is now able to direct 
the movements of fleets and guide their opera- 
tions against an enemy invisible from the level 
of the sea. As the swift frigate was to Nelson 
and the cruiser to Togo, so to the admirals of the 
present war the hydroplane has made possible a 
knowledge of enemy operations far in advance 
of the actual contact, and as sea power in past 
ages has been the key to national security, so in 
the future years must sea power be assured by 
air supremacy. 

As an enemy of the submarine the sky frigates 
have, in the war immediately past, proved of 
the greatest value, for from the plane of their 
operations it was possible to scan a wide tract 
of sea, and even in the depths of the water to de- 
tect the presence of the submerged submarine. 
Armed with bombs and machine guns they were 
not limited to the work of scouting, but under 
varied circumstances in a large number of in- 



112 On the Coast of France 

stances gave battle to the enemy and rendered an 
invaluable service. 

The comprehensive operations of the United 
States Naval Air Force in France required an 
amount of construction which had only reached 
completion shortly before the termination of hos- 
tilities. Had the war continued for even a few 
months longer this branch of the service would 
have played an enormously greater part in the 
conflict with the submarine. As it was, the serv- 
ice rendered was of a vital nature and the entire 
organization is entitled to much commendation 
for the work actually done and the compre- 
hensive plan which was brought so nearly into 
full operation. 

The following instances have been selected as 
characteristic of the work performed by the 
aviation forces in conjunction with the Navy on 
the French coast. 

On the twenty-ninth of October, 19 17, a hydro- 
plane on patrol duty with a convoy departing 
from La Palice, sighted the American steamship 
Alma proceeding along in the direction of 
Rochebonne. Flying over the ship, the aviators 



Other Activities 113 

saw at a considerable distance the wake of a 
submarine approaching the Alma. Passing over 
the wake, the aviators dropped two bombs, which 
fell near the wake, and a third which apparently 
struck in close proximity to the submarine. The 
submarine realizing the danger of its situation 
promptly dived and disappeared. 

On another day of the same month two hydro- 
planes left Camaret on a scouting trip. Shortly 
after passing Ouessant, about twenty-five miles 
from He Verge, they picked up the wake of a 
submarine. Heading for it, they perceived the 
outline of the submarine bdow the surface, 
apparently headed in the general direction of 
several sailing ships. The afternoon was late, 
it was growing dark and a strong breeze was 
blowing. The two hydroplanes passed over the 
submarine and as they saw the periscope each 
dropped a bomb. The first bomb fell near the 
mark and the second struck the superstructure 
of the submarine. Passing over the mark again, 
each hydroplane dropped a second bomb. The 
submarine now disappeared giving off quantities 
of oil that rapidly spread over the surface of the 



114 On the Coast of France 

sea. Then the periscope suddenly shot forth and 
again disappeared and a heavy list was discern- 
ible in the submarine. Seeing that their work 
was accomplished, the hydroplanes warned the 
patrols escorting the convoy and returned to 
their base. 

The dangers and hardships of the air service 
find a good example in the experience of two 
hydroplanes which put out from Treguier for 
patrol duty ofif He de Batz. Late in the after- 
noon motor trouble developed in one of the 
hydroplanes and it was forced to light about 
eight miles west of Treguier. The other ma- 
chine descended slowly and threw a message 
buoy to a fishing boat which was standing in 
the vicinity. The buoy was picked up but the 
message had become detached. The first hydro- 
plane then released its carrier pigeons, but it 
was found later that these for some reason failed 
to arrive at their coop. The other machine then 
returned to Treguier for help, and several patrol 
boats went out and searched all night and during 
the following morning for the missing hydro- 
plane. Finally at the end of twenty-six hours the 



Other Activities 115 

two occupants of the hydroplane were picked up 
by the French destroyer Durandol, floating help- 
lessly in a rough sea. The machine was taken 
in tow but the line parted and it sank before a 
new line could be passed. 

The following report of an attack on a sub- 
marine is characteristic of a number of similar 
engagements, and is quoted in the aviator's own 
words from his report. 

On Tuesday morning, April 23, 1918, at 10:33, hydroavions 
No. 25 with Pilot R. H. Harrell and Observer H. W. Studer and 
No. 22 with Pilot-Ensign K. R. Smith and Observer G. E. Williams, 
left station He Tudy for the purpose of convoying and to search 
for hydroavion No. 26 which was forced to land on account of 
motor trouble, the incident of No. 26 having been reported on 
return of No. 23, which two had been out on previous patrol and 
convoy. 

Leaving station, steered zigzag course toward Pte. de Penmarch. 
At 10:58 A.M. sighted No. 26, three miles west of Pte. de Penmarch 
tied astern of two-mast fishing smack. We circled over them to 
ascertain if all was well. On finding them resting comfortably, 
steered a course to the south along the shore to inform the motor- 
boat crew which was sent out from station to tow them in. Upon 
reaching the boat, dropped them a correspondence buoy, giving 
them the location of No. 26 and informing them to follow us to her 
position. Resuming course toward Pte. de Penmarch, circled over 
No. 26 and signaled all was well. 

Made contact with south-bound convoy of twenty ships at 11:30 
A.M. six miles northwest of Pte. de Penmarch. Continued flight 
towards northwest off starboard side of convoy, arriving at position 
off end of last ship, circled to the southwest, remaining on starboard 
side of ships. 

At II 43 A.M. observed an object on the surface of water, 
bearing 280° off Pte. de Penmarch light and about eight miles 



Ii6 On the Coast of France 



from shore. Made signals to my pilot to steer for that point and 
arriving over the object made a closer observation. Observed 
water disturbance, bubbles, oily surface and small wash of sea 
growth. Ensign K. R. Smith, my pilot, instructed me to arm the 
bombs and bomb the spot. We then made a short circle over the 
position, raising from seventy-five meters to two hundred. The 
bombs were armed and everything made ready for bombing, and 
upon coming over the location again observed a dark object and 
apparently more oil. 

The first bomb was dropped at 11:50 a.m. The results were 
highly satisfactorj', both in placing the shot and the bomb's effective- 
ness — hitting the exact spot of disturbance and color. We then 
circled for another shot which was dropped at 11:52 and hitting 
ten feet farther westward than the previous shot. 

During the bombing period No. 25 was circling the same posi- 
tion and guarding our movements. The observer in plane No. 25 
showed his presence of mind in dropping a phosphorus buoy marker, 
thereby marking the exact location and giving notice of position to 
an American destroyer, which was steaming to our position at full 
steam. 

We flew towards the American destroyer dropping a correspond- 
ence buoy of our action. The destroj'er steamed ahead to the 
bombing position and upon arriving over the spot let go three depth 
charges. At this juncture a French gunboat arrived at scene of 
encounter, standing with all guns manned and searching for what 
would appear of an enemy submarine. 

We continued circling our position over spot, observing the 
results of the bombs, seeing nothing but small particles of what 
appeared to be cork, much sea growth, and oil. Left scene of action 
at 12:30 P.M. and continued a course to the south. 

At 12:35 again made contact with convoy which had arrived 
twelve miles southwest of Pte. de Penmarch and were passing a 
second convoy of sixteen ships bound north. 

At 12:36 hydroavion No. 25 flew signal of motor trouble and both 
headed for station, arriving at 12:48. The conditions were: 
Weather, hazy; sea, heavy ground swells; visibility of air, poor; 
visibility of water, good. The duration of flight was two hours 
and fifteen minutes. 

The use of kite balloons for observation pur- 
poses proved of great practical value in con- 



Other Activities 1 17 

junction with the destroyers, but this means of 
observation was not adopted until the closing 
months of the war. Early in August, 1918, a 
trial trip with a kite balloon was made by the 
Gushing. Extremely rough weather, a number 
of minor defects (partly due to the new appa- 
ratus) , the inexperience of the crew, and the sea- 
sickness of the balloon personnel, rendered the 
experiment in some respects unsatisfactory. The 
balloon behaved perfectly, however, except at 
one time when it became considerably deflated, 
and, due to its violent plunging in the high wind, 
could not be gassed. On this occasion the ob- 
server was obliged to dive overboard out of the 
basket as the only possible way by which he could 
reach the destroyer. 

The report of operations with a kite balloon 
on the Ericsson the latter part of August gives 
the information that the smoke of an approach- 
ing convoy was detected at a distance of forty 
miles and again, at the same distance, a passing 
convoy was detected. The flying height was 
from 640 to 660 feet. 

Although the bluejacket is naturally asso- 



Ii8 On the Coast of France 

ciated primarily with the sea, almost every war 
has contained memorable instances of the action 
of seamen in land operations, and in our naval 
operations in France the brief but important 
v^ork of the United States naval railway batteries 
proved that even in modern warfare the am- 
phibious nature of the Navy has not declined. 

Early in 1918 it was determined to provide a 
number of guns of large caliber mounted on rail- 
way carriages to work in conjunction with our 
land forces. The long familiarity of the Navy 
with guns of this nature resulted in the prompt 
decision to operate the batteries, officered by 
naval officers and manned by bluejackets, as 
naval units. 

Each battery consisted of one fourteen-inch 
fifty-caliber naval gun weighing approximately 
178,000 pounds, mounted on a railway carriage 
and accompanied by a complete train for its 
operation and supply, consisting of a locomotive, 
tender, fourteen-inch arnmunition car, anti-air- 
craft car, anti-aircraft ammunition car, battery 
headquarters kitchen car, staff headquarters and 
dispensing car, berthing car, stafif radio car, fuel 



Other Activities 119 

car and staff quarters car. The expedition was 
also accompanied by a construction car with a 
heavy crane, a wrecking car, a staff officers car, 
a spare parts car and a number of freight and 
flat cars. The command of the expedition was 
placed with Captain (later Rear- Admiral) C. P. 
Plunkett, U. S. N., and Commander G. L. 
Schuyler, U. S. N., second in command and gun- 
nery officer. 

The construction of the trains was undertaken 
by the Baldwin Locomotive Works at Phila- 
delphia, and a number of specially trained me- 
chanics from this plant were enlisted in the Navy 
and accompanied the expedition. 

Early in August the guns and equipment be- 
gan to arrive at Saint-Nazaire, and on the eight- 
eenth of the month the first complete one-gun 
battery was ready to leave for the Front. No. 
2 battery was assembled and ready a short time 
later, and by the latter part of September bat- 
teries Nos. 3, 4, and ij were ready for the field. 

There had been considerable speculation re- 
garding the possible effect on the railroad tracks 
and bridges due to the enormous weight of the 



I20 On the Coast of France 



trains but no damage occurred, and the trains 
proceeding at a reasonable speed arrived at their 
destination without incident. 

The honor of the first shot came to battery No. 
2 which opened on a large enemy ammunition 
dump near Fontenoy on September 14. For a 
number of weeks, batteries i and 2, operating 
under the control of the commanding general of 
the first French Army, were employed in the 
vicinity of Soissons and fired chiefly on Laon, 
and at Mortiers near Saint-Quentin. The range 
of these guns being approximately fifty thousand 
yards, it was possible to spread destruction far 
inside the enemy lines, and to increase their 
effectiveness they were at all times placed in very 
advanced positions which brought them under 
more or less continuous fire. 

The reports of battery No. i mention that on 
one occasion a six-inch German shell exploded 
within twelve feet of the gun, but slight damage 
was done, and the matter was officially dismissed 
with the remark that the enemy shell "pep- 
pered" the battery. In reply to this "hit" the 
battery shortly after dropped a shell into a Ger- 




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Other Activities 1 21 

man troop cinema creating over one hundred 
casualties. 

Early in October Nos. -^j 4, and q took up a 
position at Thierville, in the Verdun Sector, and 
they were later joined in the same general vicin- 
ity by Nos. I and 2, where fire was maintained 
on Montmedy, Mengiennes, Benestrofif and Sar- 
rebourg. 

On October 27 an enemy shell exploded in the 
vicinity of battery No. 15, wounding five men, 
one of whom later died of his wounds. Due to 
their advanced position which brought them 
under constant fire of both the long-range and 
smaller caliber guns of the enemy, it is remark- 
able that the casualties were relatively few, and 
especially as the night firing exposed the men 
constantly to the enemy's observation. 

A most valuable service was given by the bat- 
teries, and had the war continued they were des- 
tined for a part which would have been of the 
utmost importance. All the materiel withstood 
the constant firing effectively and the highest 
commendation was received by the officers and 
men for their skill in operating the guns. 



122 On the Coast of France 

Mine-sweeping is perhaps one of the most im- 
portant and at the same time one of the dan- 
gerous and most disagreeable services rendered 
by the naval forces in modern warfare. The ex- 
periences of the little group of United States 
mine-sweepers at Lorient was no exception. It 
will be recalled that the fleet of United States 
mine-sweepers in French waters consisted of 
nine small vessels which were originally sent 
over for patrol service, but being speedily con- 
demned for this work, due to their unsuitable 
construction, were later converted for mine- 
sweeping. 

In this department the French Naval Forces 
were particularly active, the Tossizza scissors 
apparatus, a French invention by which mines 
caught by the sweeping gear were released and 
allowed to rise to the surface where they might 
be destroyed by gunfire, having proved highly 
efifective. So valuable, in fact, was this contribu- 
tion to anti-mine work that it was adopted by 
the British Navy for their own extensive opera- 
tions. 

The United States mine-sweepers concentrated 



Other Activities 123 

their operations at Lorient, and there worked in 
conjunction with the French in keeping free the 
channels and in destroying enemy mine fields 
in the vicinity reported by ships or hydroplanes. 

The German mines were laid, by necessity, en- 
tirely by submarines, and only the constant, un- 
tiring, daily sweeping of the channels could 
assure the safety of the shipping passing through 
them. These mines, of various types as the war 
progressed, were in the large part anchored at a 
depth of about fifteen feet, on high tide, beneath 
the surface, to be exploded by the sides of the 
passing vessel which, coming in contact with the 
protruding horns detonated the mine. 

The French mine-sweepers were built for this 
particular duty and were a light-draft type of 
vessel capable of proceeding with relative safety 
over an existing mine field without striking the 
submerged mines. The American sweepers, on 
the other hand, were a converted craft and of a 
draft which permitted their use for only a couple 
of hours on the flood tide. At these times they 
could pass safely over the mines, but at lower 
water there would have been considerable dan- 



124 ^^ ^^^^ Coast of France 

ger of striking and detonating the mines encoun- 
tered. In this work a number of sweepers 
worked together advancing over a supposed field 
dragging their sweeping gear astern. As the 
wire cables which comprised the sweeps caught 
on the anchoring cable of a mine, the scissors 
either cut loose the mine or the mine was torn 
loose from its anchorage and rose to the surface, 
when it was promptly exploded by gunfire. 

In the earlier years of the war a type of mine 
was employed by the German mine layers which 
could be " dehorned," and after being thus ren- 
dered innocuous, could be examined. Later, 
however, the mines were so constructed that an 
attempt to dehorn them resulted in their explo- 
sion and the annihilation of several detachments 
of enterprising French sailors. 

The hazardous nature of this work, its mo- 
notony and the discomforts of the vessels made 
the duties of the mine-sweepers far from en- 
viable and much credit should be given to the 
men who uncomplainingly gave themselves to 
this branch of the service. 

The value of this service is indicated by the 



Other Activities 125 

following letter from the prefet maritime of the 
third arrondissement, Vice-Admiral Aubrey, to 
the district commander at Lorient. 

The C. D. P. L. has recently informed me how much he appre- 
ciates the services of the United States mine-sweepers in the daily 
sweep and the destruction of enemy mines. He has spoken in par- 
ticular, of the zeal which these sweepers showed the second week 
of July, when in conjunction with the French, they cleared the mine 
field Guerande shoal. This successful operation was carried out in 
bad weather under very arduous and dangerous conditions. 

I wish to express to you my sincere gratitude and will ask that 
you kindly convey my thanks and appreciation to the officers and 
crews of the Hinton and Caltill and most particularly to the James, 
which alone sank four mines. 

On a gray afternoon early in November the 
sound of cheering greeted the destroyer Roe as 
she slid out from her moorings and turned slowly 
toward the opening in the breakwater. From 
her slender mainmasts a hundred-foot pennant, a 
single row of stars in its blue field and two long 
stripes of red and white beyond, curved and 
floated in the breeze. It was " homeward bound." 
As the Roe stood out of the harbor cheers from 
every vessel gave her a Godspeed as she passed. 
From destroyer decks groups of men with home 
longing in their eyes watched her steam on to- 
ward the outgoing convoy. A destroyer signaled 



126 On the Coast of France 

"Give our regards to Broadway," and "Good 
Luck, may you follow soon" came back from 
the fluttering semaphore on her signal bridge. 
She was the first to leave from France, and al- 
though the armistice was declared but a week 
later, there were few who watched her departure 
on that gloomy afternoon, who dared to hope 
that the end of actual hostilities was so near at 
hand. 

A week later the harbor was glittering in sun- 
shine. It was noon and the crews of the hundred- 
odd vessels in the great harbor of Brest were 
knocking off their work for dinner. Suddenly 
from the shore battery beside the ancient fortress 
a puff of white smoke was followed by the dull 
boom of a gun; another followed, another, and 
then another. The heavy voices of the guns were 
augmented by a high-pitched whistle from a 
great French cruiser, and an enormous tricolor 
broke out suddenly against the blue of the sky. 
Other guns took up the challenge; deep-voiced 
whistles and wailing, shrieking sirens. The ar- 
mistice was signed ! On every ship men crowded 
the decks and cheered madly. Great flags, the 



Other Activities 127 



unconquered emblem of America, broke out on 
the breeze. The hostilities were ended. It was 
over, "Over There." 



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